How To Make Paneer or cottage cheese
If you love Indian food, then I am sure you must be very well aware of paneer. I have a lot of paneer recipes on the blog and be assured that there will be more in the future. Today sharing step by step Home Made Paneer Recipe.
What is Paneer?
- Paneer is Indian cottage cheese made by curdling the milk.
- You can either curdle the milk with vinegar or lemon juice. You can also use yogurt.
- Once the milk is curdled, you collect the cheese in a muslin cloth and then let it set until it’s firm.
- And that’s about it! Seriously, it’s that easy to make paneer at home.
- Paneer is used in a number of curries in India, the popular ones
Making paneer is very simple, you just require two ingredients Milk and Curdling agent
Milk- I use whole milk or full fat milk to get best result.
Curdling agent- That is a question of availability. Actually, you can use curd, lemon juice and vinegar too. Infact, if you want to prepare indian sweets out of it than lemon juice or curd is recommended.
I had shared lots of paneer recipes in my blog and will post more in future. Being vegetarian paneer is the staple in my weekly menu as it is a very good source of protein. You will find variety of paneer dishes with step by step recipes in my blog like
- Paneer Khurchan-An Indian Curry
- Kashmiri paneer| Lal Paneer
- Paneer Bhurji – A Simple Paneer
- PANEER BUTTER MASALA- AN INDIAN CURRY
- And so on..
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Directions
- Heat the milk in the pan till it almost start boiling , then turn off the heat. Do Not boil the milk.
Add lemon juice (or citrus substitute) one tbsp at a time.
- Stir the milk constantly while adding the lemon juice; the solid curds will separate from the liquid whey.
- Place the cheesecloth in a strainer, and strain out the whey from the curds. Allow the curds to cool for at least 15 minutes.
- Use the cheesecloth to squeeze out any excess moisture.
- Paneer is ready to use.Try to consume the paneer within two three days.
Make sure to remove the cheese from the cheesecloth and store it in an airtight container. Do not store the paneer in the refrigerator when it is just wrapped in the cheesecloth as the cheese will dry out. You can freeze the cheese for up to several months.
HOME MADE COTTAGE CHEESE / PANEER
Course: MainCuisine: IndianDifficulty: Easy20
minutes30
minutes100
kcalHomemade cottage cheese or paneer is made with whole milk with just two ingredients. Learn how to make paneer at home.
Ingredients
8 cups whole milk
6 tablespoons lemon juice or white vinegar
- Other Materials Required
cheesecloth
colander or strainer
Directions
- Pour the milk into a large pot and bring it to boil over medium heat. I like to cover the pot to speed up the boiling process (which also lessens the likelihood of the milk burning on the bottom). However, you need to watch over that pot like a hawk. Once you start hearing bubbling in the pot, remove the lid and check to see if the milk has boiled. Don’t let the milk boil over the pot because it is a mess to clean up later. You can also check the milk periodically and give it a stir as you wait for it to boil.
- While the milk is boiling, prep the lemon juice. If you are using vinegar, I recommend mixing it with 1/4 cup water so that it is not so intense when you pour it into the milk.
- Once the milk has boiled, pour in the lemon juice (or vinegar) mixture. Give everything a stir, and you should see the milk curdle immediately. If you don’t, you can add 1 more tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar. Let the contents of the pot cool for another 5 to 10 minutes.
- Line a colander with a cheesecloth and place the lined colander into the sink.
- Strain the milk curds through the cheesecloth. Rinse the curds under cold water to wash out the lemon juice or vinegar. This also helps cool the milk curds so that you can squeeze it immediately afterwards.
- Gather up the corners of the cloth, twist the cloth so that the soft cheese is in the shape of a ball. Squeeze out the excess water. Usually, the cheese is cool enough for me to handle at this point.
- Shape the cheese into a disc (see photos above for an illustration). Place wrapped the cheese over a plate and weigh it down with a small stack of plates on top. Press the cheese for 1 to 2 hours. I usually transfer everything to the fridge at this stage. If you don’t have enough space in your refrigerator, you can press the cheese on the counter and then transfer the cheese to the fridge when you are done. I like to refrigerate the cheese before cooking with it because it allows the cheese to firm up and decreases the likelihood of it disintegrating while I cook with it.
- Once chilled, the paneer is ready for cooking! You can refrigerate the cheese in an airtight container for up to a week. You can also freeze the cheese for up to several months.
Wow so simple..