jump

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Paneer Recipe- How to make Paneer at Home/Homemade cottage cheese

Paneer is also known as Indian cottage cheese or farmer’s cheese. It is very simple to make, only requires two ingredients that you probably already have at home, and take only a few minutes active and half an hour passive making time.
For those who don’t know, paneer is an Indian cheese, where the milk is coagulated by adding a food acid. It is not a fermented product like other cheeses. The coagulated milk is collected in a muslin and allowed to be hung or pressed with a heavy weight. After cooling you get a block of paneer/cottage cheese which can be used for making a variety of dishes. Unlike many cheeses in the world, the making of paneer does not involve rennet as the coagulation agent thus making it completely vegetarian and providing one of the sources of proteins for vegetarians in India.

Paneer is generally unsalted, but you can make it with different flavors like masala paneer or herbed paneer. All of them are delicious.  

It is called for in many Indian recipes and sometimes, may not be available at your supermarket. It can be stored in fridge for up to 1 week.

Not all Indian dishes require paneer to make into solid blocks. Stuffed Paneer Naans for example require cheese to be loose.
There are many Bengali sweets like rasgulla, rasmalai and cham cham, in which store bought paneer cannot be used, as it is very hard/firm and we required chenna for Bengali sweets.

So if you plan to make any kind to recipe requiring paneer or chenna, try this recipe at home. I am sure you will be happy to eat this really soft, fresh and porous paneer to your recipe. This medhod of making paneer is quick and within 30 minutes you have a good block of paneer ready. I don’t hang the paneer at all. After draining the whey, just keep the weight on the paneer and it all sets after 30-40 minutes. There you go, your homemade paneer is ready.

Homemade paneer recipe below:

Prep time
Cook time
Total
 30 min
 10 min
 40 min

How to make paneer at home and some notes

AUTHOR: Monali
RECIPE TYPE: Cooking tips
CUISINE: World
SERVES: 1 small block of paneer, approx. 200 gm

INGREDIENTS (measuring cup used, 1 cup=237 ml)
  • 1 liter whole milk/full cream milk
  • 3-4 tbsp of an acid – lemon juice is used in this recipe (You can substitute it with lime juice, vinegar or citric acid) 
Step by step method of how to make paneer:
  1. Boil the milk in a deep pan and keep on stirring so that it do not stick to the bottom of the pan.
  2. Once the milk starts to boil turn off the heat.
  3. Add lemon juice or vinegar to it. 5 ml at a time, stirring the milk after each addition until milk separates.
  4. Within few minutes, the milk will curdle and you can see watery whey below.
  5. As soon as this happens, add cold water or ice cubes into it. The paneer will instantly separate from water and will start to float at the surface of the pan.
  6. Now sieve the chenna with a muslin cloth.
  7. Rinse it with fresh water.
  8. Squeeze the cloth with hands to strain any excess water from paneer.
     
  9. At this stage it is called as chenna, which is used to make Bengali sweets.
  10. The more you squeeze, the firmer the resulting paneer shall be. Fold the muslin cloth in square or rectangle.
  11. Place something flat like a cutting board on top of the paneer. This will help to force out more moisture and shape it into a firmer block, suitable for slicing and frying.
  12. After 30-40 minutes, the paneer block is ready to be used. Cut them in your desired shape. 
NOTES
  • The more fat content in the milk, the better output. Paneer made from high fat content milk will be tastier. The natural cream present in the milk, makes the paneer soft.
  • Zero fat or skim milk does not work out well with this method.
  • You may require 15 ml or more acid before the curds separate from the whey.
  • Do not use old or spoiled milk to prepare the paneer.
  • Once you add the lemon juice or vinegar then the milk will start to curdle. Wait until the milk is completely curdled. You should be able to see whitish or greenish whey.
  • Once the milk coagulates/curdles completely, immediately strain the milk.
  • The overcooking will yield hard paneer once set.
  • You can store the paneer in an airtight container for a week. Soak the paneer in warm water after you have removed it from the fridge. 

No comments:

Post a Comment