We Sri Lankans eat Pittu for breakfast and for dinner.   Pittu is not native to Sri Lanka because Pittu is eaten in the South Indian states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and parts of Karnataka. They call it Puttu, and  Puttu means "portioned" in Tamil and Malayalam. So we can guess Pttu came to our food culture from southern India.  Pittu is made by using a “Pittu bambuwa''  (Pittu maker) which has a cylindrical shaped hollow device that can be attached to a pot. When the water inside the pot is boiled, its steam goes through the hollow cylindrical device (traditional ones are made with bamboo), and the things inside the device are cooked. If you don’t have a Pittu maker you can just use a steamer for the purpose. The typical Pittu is made from rice flour and coconut shaving mixture which  is loaded into this cylindrical shaped device and covered with a lid and attached to the pot to cook. After being cooked the bamboo shaped device is taken out from the pot and removed from the lid, by using a long wooden spoon or something like that the Pittu (portion) is pushed gently, so it will come out having a cylindrical shape. Pittu can be made not only with rice flour (white rice flour or brown rice flour), but also with finger millet flour, semolina and oats. Some people incorporate vegetables like carrot, leeks and onions into the Pittu mixture.  Coconut Pittu is the most popular among them.  

To eat Pittu  Sri Lankan people make coconut gravy(Kiri hodi), and a mixture of grounded chilli & onion (Lunu miris - Katta sambolaya). Some people eat Pittu with salted coconut milk. 

Pittu is easy to make, all you need to do is mix the ingredients nicely and load it into the Pittu bambuwa (Pittu maker).  This is how to make Coconut pittu.

The ingredients are: 

•  cups of roasted rice flour
•  1 ½ cups of grated coconut
•  1 cup of water 
•  Salt as per your taste
   

When mixing is done you should be careful with adding water. You should add water little by little, not to make it a slurry or avoid making it very dry. This comes with experience. You can watch videos on Youtube to see how to mix the ingredients exactly to make Pittu. Instead of using  rice flour only  you can add finger millet flour also (if two cups of rice flour is taken you can use one cup of rice flour and one cup of finger millet flour)

If you make vegetable Pittu you can add grated carrots, chopped green chilli, chopped onions etc in addition to the Pittu mixture. 

Making Pittu from semolina is a little bit different. You need 

• 1 cup of  roasted semolina
•  1 cup of water, 2-3 dried chillies
•  ¼ tsp of turmeric powder
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• ¼ tsp mustard seeds
•  ½ tsp cumin seeds
•  ½ big onion chopped
• some curry leaves
•  1 ½ tbsp of coconut oil 
• salt as per your taste

First saute the spices,onions and mustard seeds, then add water and  stir well. After that add  semolina and mix well. Finally load the semolina mixture into the Pittu maker and make Pittu from it. To eat semolina Pittu special Chickpea curry is made. 

When making Pittu from oats, you don’t need to add flour. Only oats, vegetables,  coconut shavings or desiccated coconuts and salt is needed. Per one serving you need a ½ of oats, 5 tablespoons of coconut shavings or desiccated coconuts, but you can add coconut as per your taste. The suitable vegetables are carrots, cabbage, onion and green chilli. After gathering all the ingredients needed, mix all together by adding a little amount of water and steam it using a Pittu maker or a steamer.  Mango curry or mango chutney is ideal to eat oats Pittu.

Indains make Masala Pittu by incoporating chicken, prawns, Chick pea etc.