Making Paneer
After reading an Indian cooking book which I purchased about 2 years ago I decided that it was time for me to try out some of the recipes. The first one I’m sharing here is the recipe for Paneer mostly because it’s very easy to make and is a nice addition to curries.
Requirements
To make the Paneer you will require: 6 pints of milk, Juice of 1 lemon and a piece of Muslin cloth (about 1m by 1m).
Instructions
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Start by heating the milk up till boiling.
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Stir in the lemon juice until the milk starts to curdle. -
When you have large lumps of milk curdling you can then drain the mixture through a muslin cloth. -
Leave to hang for about 3 hours. This will drain most of the liquid. Although 7 hours is recommended. -
As most of the liquid is now drained there will be a bit of liquid left. Here the Paneer is compressed using as many tins as I can pile on top to remove excess liquid. -
The Paneer is now ready. It should be just like a medium-soft cheese, easy to cut into square pieces and ready to eat, fry into a curry or store in the fridge.
What not to do!
My initial attempt at this was to cut back on the quality of ingredients used… big mistake! I used Long life semi-skimmed milk with 1 jiff lemon. The texture of the Paneer was fine however the flavour was very nutty… not nice. When made with fresh ingredients the Paneer has a much smooth texture and non-nutty taste.
