Paneer (Indian cheese)

Paneer
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Dear Komal, Anjli and Amar,

If you are not near any Asian store and need paneer for one of your dishes…. then this is your ‘Go To’ recipe. Paneer is a versatile ingredient. It can be used cubed for dishes like, matar paneer, or bhaji paneer or even on its own in chilli paneer. If your home made paneer is proving to be difficult to cube then simply crumble and add it to your dish. Crumbled paneer will make a substantial gravy ingredient and taste yummy.

Paneer

Home Made Indian Cheese-Paneer

Servings: 0
Popular ingredient in many Indian restaurants. Paneer was never our daily ingredient and I learnt to make this much later in life.
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Ingredients

  • 2 litre of half or full fat milk
  • 4 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions

  • Heat the milk in a large thick bottom pan.
  • Bring to boil, reduce the heat and while simmering, pour in lemon juice. The milk solids will start to separate.
  • When the solids have separated and the water appears greenish/yellow and clear, turn off the heat.
  • Spread a large muslin cloth in a colander placed in a large bowl, and drain the separated milk. Save the liquid for making kadhi or using for grinding dhokra or idli dough. This liquid can be frozen in small containers for later use.
  • Gather all the edges of the muslin, squeeze out excess liquid and hold the muslin under running water to remove all lemon juice remains.
  • Squeeze out as much water as possible and then, still leaving the curds in the muslin, knead the dough for a few minutes to make it all uniform in consistency.
  • Spread the solids with the muslin in a tray at least 1 inch deep.
  • Cover the layer with the remaining muslin and weigh down with a heavy object that has similar surface area as the spread solids.
  • Store the tray in a cool place for a couple of hours.
  • The resultant paneer should not crumble when cut into 1 inch squares, otherwise the solids will require re-kneading and storing for a further 2 hours.
  • Remove from muslin cloth and leave on chopping board to dry a little.
  • Cut into 1” squares and brown lightly either by frying in deep oil or shallow frying with a little oil or by roasting dry on a non-stick frying pan.
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