Pootharekulu

Atreyapuram's paper sweet: translucent sheets of rice starch brushed with ghee, layered with powdered jaggery and cashews, and folded into crisp rolls

Origin: Atreyapuram & the Godavari Delta, Andhra Pradesh, India

From the journey of Rice.

Pootharekulu are the paper sweets of Atreyapuram, a village in the Godavari delta of coastal Andhra Pradesh. Each is built from reku, sheets of cooked rice starch so thin that they are translucent, which are brushed with ghee, layered with powdered sugar or jaggery and chopped nuts, and folded into a small rectangular roll that shatters when bitten and melts almost at once. The name says how it is made: pootha is coating in Telugu, and reku is sheet. The sheets are the whole art, and they are made in a way found nowhere else. Local Jaya rice is soaked and ground to a very thin batter; a pot of clay is turned upside down over a fire; and the maker dips a cloth in the batter and sweeps it once across the hot, curved surface, where it sets into a film that is peeled away and stacked. Too thick and the sheet is leathery, too thin and it tears, and the judgement is passed from one generation of the village's women to the next by demonstration rather than by recipe. Some four hundred families in Atreyapuram live by the sweet. In June 2023 Atreyapuram Pootharekulu received a Geographical Indication. The application was made by a producers' cooperative named after Sir Arthur Cotton, the British engineer whose anicut across the Godavari at Dowleswaram, completed in 1852, turned the delta into one of the great rice-growing districts of India. More than a century and a half later, the rice sweet of the delta still carries his name.

Ingredients

Rice Sheets (Reku)

  • 150 g raw white rice, ideally Jaya rice, soaked for 1 hour
  • 600 ml water, approximately
  • 16 whole ready-made reku sheets, if not making your own

Filling

  • 100 g ghee, melted
  • 150 g jaggery, finely powdered, or powdered sugar
  • 60 g cashews, finely chopped
  • 30 g almonds or pistachios, finely chopped
  • 0.5 tsp ground cardamom

Method

  1. Drain the rice and grind it with the water to a completely smooth, very thin batter, thinner than single cream. Strain through a fine sieve.
  2. Traditionally the sheets are made on an inverted clay pot heated from below. To try it at home, heat an upturned round-bottomed wok or a large inverted clay pot over a gas flame until evenly hot.
  3. Dip a thin cotton cloth in the batter, lift it out dripping lightly, and sweep it in one smooth pass across the hot curved surface. Within seconds a translucent film sets. Peel it off gently and lay it on a plate.
  4. Mix the powdered jaggery, cashews, almonds, and cardamom.
  5. Lay one sheet on a board and brush it lightly all over with ghee. Fold it in half, brush again, and sprinkle a generous spoonful of the jaggery and nut mixture along the centre.
  6. Lay a second sheet over the top, brush with ghee, and fold the sides in to make a neat rectangle about 10 cm by 5 cm, pressing gently to seal.
  7. Repeat with the remaining sheets and filling, and leave the pootharekulu for 30 minutes to firm up before serving.

Notes

Pootharekulu keep for two to three weeks in an airtight tin in a cool, dry place. Humidity softens them. The classic fillings are plain sugar, jaggery, and jaggery with dried fruit and nuts; sugar-free versions with dates are now also sold in Atreyapuram. Wrap each piece in paper to store, as the Atreyapuram makers do, since they stick together in the tin.

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