Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) A Vegetarian's Delight

Paneer is an Indian cottage cheese very commonly used in Indian vegetarian cuisine. It's an un-aged, non melting cheese that is made by curdling heated milk with lemon juice or a food acid. It is then simply pressed into a cube, then sliced or chopped...to be used in a number of delightful ways, creating some of the most popular Indian Vegetarian dishes as you'll see below. Paneer has often been compared to as Tofu...because of it's texture and consistency and can be substituted with it for any of the below recipes.

How to make Paneer at home...

While Paneer is available at most dairies and stores across India, people still prefer to make their own at home....and who can blame them...the process is very simple, fast and the results are a great homemade fresh cottage cheese ready for the most delicious of Indian vegetarian preparations.The method is quite simple really. A food acid (usually lemon juice, vinegar, or yogurt) is added to hot milk to separate the curds from the whey. The curds are then drained in a muslin cloth or cheesecloth and the excess water is pressed out. The resulting paneer is dipped in chilled water for 2-3 hours to give it a good texture and appearance.

Here's a simple recipe with step by step instructions...so you can't go wrong-:

Ingredients:
- 10 cups whole milk
- 1/2 cup buttermilk / yogurt (more maybe needed, so keep some extra)
OR
- 3-4 tbsp of an acid like lemon juice/lime juice

Method:
- In a large heavy bottomed pan, bring the milk to a boil over medium heat. Stir often to ensure that the milk is not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- When milk starts to boil, lower heat and add the buttermilk or lemon juice (one teaspoon at a time) and stir until the milk starts to separate into curds.
- Remove from heat as soon as this happens. You can even add a few ice cubes to the curd-whey mix. As the heat will make the protein tougher.
-If the curds are not forming, add a little more buttermilk and cook for a couple of minutes more. And do the above as soon as the curds form.
- Pour the curds-whey mix into a colander lined with several layers of cheese cloth or even a layer of muslin, draining onto a dish that will collect the whey.
- Collect the sides of the cheesecloth or muslin and tie it up together and twist gently to help drain the whey from the curds.
- Shape the paneer while it is still in the cheese cloth, into a block by wrapping it tightly with the cloth. Then put a cutting board or something heavy and flat on top of the paneer. This forces out more moisture and makes it into a firmer block which is suitable for slicing and frying.
- If you want it soft and crumbly don't weigh it down for too long...around half an hour should do the trick. For a firmer block of cheese leave it for around an hour or little more.
- Soak the block of cheese in chilled water for 2-3 hours This is optional, as the intention is to improve appearance and texture.