Sweet potato Batura with Mutter Paneer

I've been wanting to include Sweet potatoes in our everyday diet for a very long time. I just didn't get around to actually do it. Then I tried Parita's baked sweet potato chips which came out really good.
My second trial was to try to fortify diamond cuts, since I hadn't made it or eaten it since I left college. Diamond cuts is a very yummy deepfried savory snack that is pretty popular in Kerala. It is made with maida(all purpose flour), the dough is rolled out thinly, and like the name suggests, the rolled out dough is cut into diamonds and deep fried. A bag of yummies and loving, chatty roomies- what more do you need? Diamond cuts wasn't familiar to me until I got to my college hostel. There is a sweet version of diamond cuts, which is made by dipping these fried goodies in sugar syrup. Sinful, but yummmy!

So early this week I made savory diamond cuts by mixing up cooked and pureed sweet potato in the dough. Eating it after almost 10 years, it was of course yummy. The cooked mashed sweet potato made it very soft, my little one absolutely loved it. However, I realized I was actually cooking the sweet potato twice!! I would boil it to begin with, mix it up in the dough and deep fry it! Hmm.. I started wondering..what are my other options?

Then of course my little one loooves batura. I make it once in a while - once every few months. So I grated a medium sized sweet potato and made batura. Now this batura is a keeper. We had it with Mutter Paneer. I made paneer at home after a realllly long time. (This new addiction called blogging is starting to affect my waistline!!)

Ingredients for the Batura -
All purpose flour - 1 and 1/2 cup
Grated Raw Sweet potato - about 3/4 cup
Ajwain seeds powdered - about 1/4 teaspoon
Salt - about 1/2 teaspoon
Curd (Yoghurt) - about 1/2 cup to mix the dough

Method -
Mix the flour, salt, powdered ajwain in a mixing bowl to combine well. Add the grated sweet potato and mix in, to make it a crumbly mixture. Mix evenly for a couple minutes. Add the yoghurt and bring the dough together. Add a few more drops of yoghurt if the dough needs more moisture to come together. Or add a tablespoon of flour if the mixture is too sticky. Knead well to make a smooth dough. Set aside for 6 to 8 hours.

When I make baturas, I mix up the dough in the morning, before I leave to work.
When you are ready to deep fry it, make lime sized balls, roll it into thin rounds and deep fry in hot oil.

This quantity should yeild about 10-15 baturas, depending on their size.

Ingredients for Mutter Paneer-
Fresh or frozen green peas - 1 cup (I used frozen)
Onions - 2 medium sized, chopped
Tomatoes- 3 medium sized, chopped
Ginger - 1 inch piece, sliced
Garlic - 1 or 2 pods
Cashew nuts - 2 tablespoons
Milk - 1/2 cup
Coriander powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Chilly powder - 1/2 teaspoon (or as spicy as you would like)
Turmeric powder - 1/8 teaspoon
Oil - 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon
Ghee - 1 teaspoon for tadka

Whole spices-
Cardamom - 4 or 5
Clove - 5 or 6
Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
Saunf(Fennel seeds) - 1/2 teaspoon
Heat the spices separately for a few minutes each without burning and grind to a fine powder.

Paneer - cut into cubes - about 1/3 pound, fresh or frozen. I made fresh paneer from 5 cups of milk and got around 20~25 cubes. I am making paneer after almost 4 or 5 years. Manjula's Kitchen has handy videos which are pretty popular and helpful. Fry the paneer cubes in oil and drain on paper towels.

Method -
Combine the coriander powder and chilly powder in a small cup and keep aside. This needs to be added to the curry at the very end.

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp oil and saute the onions in medium heat for about 1 minute. Add the chopped ginger and garlic, cashew nuts and sauté for about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and the turmeric powder and sauté till the raw smell is lost, about 4 - 5 minutes. Remove from fire and cool for about 5 - 10 minutes. This needs to be blended to a puree.

After the onion&tomato mixture is cool enough, blend it into a smooth puree. Meanwhile, add a teaspoon oil to the pan and briefly stir fry the green peas with a pinch of turmeric powder. Add the blended puree, the ground masala powder and about 1/4 teaspoon salt, stir fry for a couple minutes. Add the milk and combine well. Adjust the gravy to the required consistency - add about 1/2 cup water if required. Bring it to a boil and add the fried paneer pieces. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from fire and check for salt.

Keep the pan open in preparation for the spicy tadka. For this we need the coriander powder + chilly powder mixture that we combined in step 1.

In a small tadka pan, heat 1 and 1/2 tsp ghee. When the ghee is hot, remove the pan from from fire and add the coriander+chilly powder mixture and immediately pour this into the curry.
This needs to happen in about 5 to 10 seconds, so the spice mixture doesn't burn in the ghee.

This tadka gives a rich ghee flavor to the curry.

The mutter paneer is ready. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with fresh cilantro leaves.
Yum. Enjoy :)

I made sweet potato rotis with the one last sweet potato I had.
Yummy recipe coming up soon..