Culinary expert Ummi Abdullah has bowled over the visitors at the Sharjah International Book Fair with her delectable Malabari food specialties. Ummi Abdullah is known as the granny of Malabari cuisine and there are none to surpass her skills when it comes to cooking mouthwatering dishes. Ummi Abdullah’s special preparation at the Book Fair’s Cookery Show was _Irachiputtu_, which is a combination of _puttu_ and mutton. Even non-Malayalis eagerly followed the method of preparing this special dish and later clarified their many doubts with her. Pure _puttu_ powder is to be used in the preparation of the _puttu_, she said. The quality of the powder has to be doubly ensured if it is bought from outside. Ummi Abdullah said that most of the housewives of Malabar make their own _puttu_ powder. _puttu_ is one of the staple breakfast foods of Malayalis. The indisputable presence of coconut is what gives Malabar dishes their edge over many other varieties of cuisine. Ummi Abdullah prepared the _puttu_ at the Book Fair using _mulakutti_ or traditional bamboo pipe. She said it was her first visit to Sharjah. She has been in the cookery field for more than half a century now, and several of her books on the subject are available. Ummi Abdullah, who was trained at the Chennai Institute of Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition institute, is a native of Kozhikode.
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