Paneer Indian Cottage Cheese Recipes

PANEER: HOMEMADE INDIAN CHEESE

Steps:

• Line a large colander with a large double layer of cheesecloth, and set it in your sink.
• In a large wide pot, bring the milk to a gentle boil over medium heat, stirring frequently to avoid burning the bottom (a nonstick pot works really well for this purpose). This will take a little while so be patient!
• Add the lemon juice and turn the heat down to low. Stirring gently, you should almost immediately see the curds (white milk solids) and whey (the greenish liquid) separate. Don't fret, this is perfect!
• Remove the pot from the heat and carefully pour the contents into the cheesecloth-lined colander. Gently rinse with cool water to get rid of the lemon flavor. At this point, you could squeeze out some of the liquid, and serve with some honey and some nuts, almost like a fresh ricotta!
• Grab the ends of the cheesecloth and twist the ball of cheese to squeeze out the excess whey. Tie the cheesecloth to your kitchen faucet and allow the cheese to drain for about 5 minutes.
• Twisting the ball to compact the cheese into a block, place it on a plate with the twisted part of the cheesecloth on the side (this will ensure your block of cheese is nice and smooth!) and set another plate on top. Weigh the second plate down with cans of beans or a heavy pot. Move to the refrigerator and let it sit about 20 minutes.
• Unwrap your beautiful disc of homemade cheese! You did it! You can now use this in any number of traditional Indian dishes, like saag paneer.

PANEER ( INDIAN COTTAGE CHEESE)

Steps:

• Bring the milk to the boil. Add the vinegar or lemon juice, and wait until the solids shift from the whey. If this does not happen after a minute or so, add some more juice or vinegar.
• Now put a clean cloth in a sieve and poor the fluid through the sieve.
• After one hour, the cheese will be like cottage cheese, especially if you add some salt and a few tablespoons cream.
• If you wait longer and put a weight on top, it will be firm white cheese.

EASY BUTTER PANNER (INDIAN COTTAGE CHEESE)

Steps:

• Cut the paneer into small cubes and set aside.
• Mix the yogurt, lemon juice, tumeric powder, white pepper powder, chopped tomatoes and salt (to taste) together. Feel free to adjust the amounts of the ingredients to your own taste/preference.
• Add the cubes of paneer (or meat of your choice) to the yogurt mix and leave aside to marinade. (I needed only about 20mins for the paneer.).
• Mix the chili powder and the meat curry powder together just enough water for the mixture to come together into a ball. Again, feel free to vary the amounts to your taste.
• Heat the oil till smoking.
• Fry the cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and star anise till fragrant.
• Hint: You may prefer to split open the cardamom and use just the seeds. Grind and fry the seeds (omitting the skins) if there are family members who are very picky and hate cardamon.
• Reduce the head to medium flame, then add the onion and fry till golden brown.
• Add ginger-garlic paste and fry till fragrant.
• Add the chilli-meat curry powder paste and fry till fragrant.
• Now add the paneer together with the marinade.
• Add the evapourate milk and salt to taste.
• Stir well and let it simmer till the paneer is cooked.
• Remove from heat, drizzle with the melted butter and garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve.
• This dish goes well with bread, rotis or even plain white rice.