Almost every person in Andhra Pradesh knows about this tasty rice paper sweet which just melts in mouth. Seeing the thin sheet I just felt that it is a very easy job to make pootarekulu. I went to market and bought a big pot. I have seasoned the pot by applying oil while heating it. I also prepared thin batter with rice. Then I tried to make the sheet by applying a thin coat on hot pot with a cloth dipped in batter. To my surprise it was a failure. Then I seasoned the pot further and tried and tried and failed repeatedly. Then I thought, as the size of the pot is big, the flame is not reaching to the top. Then I have bought a small pot and started trying---yet failures continued. During this process, I had to scrape the dried batter from the pot and clean the place. One would not believe, it was a mess and torturous chore — the hope of atleast getting one sheet on this pot,  I expected to forget the failures and disappointments which I faced till now. Pootarekulu on the pot remained elusive. Then I came to know that pootarekula kunda is specially made and it has holes on it. I could not believe this and felt like giving it a try by making holes on the pot I was trying---yet I did not get the pootareku. Then I gave it up till I read an article in newspaper about making of pootarekulu in Vizianagaram district. I felt challenged to learn and make pootarekulu. I enquired and could get a help from Sri Satyanarayana Garu of IKP who took me to Merakamudidam village in Vizianagaram district. I took my pot to that village and wanted to know the reason for failure. There Smt. Ramulamma taught and gave reasons as to why I was not getting a pootareku at my place. The villagers were really helpful and taught me in detail. I took the opportunity and learned the art of making rekulu on the hot pot. I can’t express my happiness in words when I took the pootareku in my hand which I have made. This visual experience helped me understand easily why and where it failed. Having learnt the art of making pootarekulu I felt like sharing all the minute details in this process with my viewers. So let us see in detail how to make pootarekulu in one’s home itself.

Pootarekula Kunda (Pot):

The pot used to make pootarekulu is not ordinary pot which we use to store water. A thin coating of fine clay is applied on the pot and then heated to get a smooth surfaced glazed pot. Also this pot has three holes equidistant from each other. Turn the pot and observe the surface---it has glaze and appears smooth when touched with fingers. The thickness of the ordinary water pot is much lesser than the thickness of the pootarekula kunda.

Seasoning The Pot:

To make pootarekulu at home the flame of the ordinary gas stove will not be sufficient. So invest in a single burner stove that is generally used by caterers in parties and functions. This single burner stove has a big burner.

Take a new pootarekula kunda and place it on the gas stove in inverted position. See that the mouth of the pot and the surface of the stove on which it rests are almost of the same size. With the help of wire pieces fix the pot to the gas stove. As the pot has three holes pass a wire through each hole and fix as shown in the movie clip so that the pot sits firmly on the gas stove. Now switch on the flame and heat the pot. Take a thick cloth and fold it into a thick bundle. Take 50ml oil. It requires less quantity when using thick oil like groundnut oil or palm oil etc.. Dip cloth in oil and smear the pot with the oily cloth. Coat the pot with oil while it is getting heated up. After some time observe that the pot absorbs all the oil smeared on it. Then again smear oil on the pot taking care to cover the entire surface of the pot. Observe that the thick cloth we are using to smear oil starts to tear due to the heat of the pot. That is the reason we use thick cloth as it will protect our hand. Continue smearing oil while heating the pot till all the 50ml oil is used up. Now switch off the flame for 30 minutes and leave the pot on the stove.