Home-made Paneer (Home-made cottage cheese )

We all are very familiar with Paneer. Its the most fascinating dairy products, loved by mostly all. Every special occasion is incomplete without it. There has to be atleast one cuisine of Paneer. There are so many ways to use it, it is used in savoury dishes and also in preparing sweets. Its an Indian cheese which is prepared by coagulating milk via lemon, vinegar, yoghurt/curd or any other food acid. 

About the Nutritional part of Paneer, its is a great source of calcium, vitamin D, protein hence very much required to be included in the daily life. Its very useful in preventing cancer and also reduces the development of insulin resistance syndrome. Hence very useful for people on insulin. It is also help full in stomach disorders. 

I my home everyone loves paneer, but its difficult to find good quality of it here in London. Hence I started preparing at home. Now the time has come that I rarely purchase paneer from outside. Its very easy to prepare. So lets quickly see the ingredients.

Ingredients:

Whole milk/full fat milk - 2 litres

Lime juice/vinegar - 2-3 tbsps
Cream - 1/2 cup

Equipments:

Heavy bottom pot (to boil the milk)

Cheese cloth/muslin cloth

Colander

Method:

Boil the milk and cream in a heavy bottom pan. Stir occasionally in between so that the milk doesn't stick to the bottom (otherwise it might burn). Once the milk comes to boil turn off the stove, add first tbsp of lime juice/vinegar and stir. You will see that it has just started curdling. Now add the other tbsp of lime juice, stir. If required then add the third tbsp of lemon juice. You will see a light greenish whey separating. Now take a colander lined up with muslin cloth, pour the entire curdled milk into it. You can place a deep pan below the colander to collect the whey. Press the muslin cloth containing paneer nicely to drain the extra water, you can take the help of a tong here as it will be quite hot. Keep it hanging for 2-3 minutes over a tap. Now keep it over a colander, fill water in a pan (you can use the same pan in which it was prepared) and put it on the top of it for atleast for an hour. This will help in making the paneer into shape. You can also use any other heavy weight like mortar & pestle. Once done you can cut the paneer into cubes, and its ready to be used.

Tips:

• Always use whole milk, you can add 1 cup of fresh cream to the milk to make more soft paneer (makhani paneer).
• Never add the entire lemon juice/vinegar in one go.
• The whey collected from the curdled milk, can be used while making chapatis. This can also be used as an agent to curdle the milk next time, paneer will be more soft.
• Once the milk is boiled and acid is added to it then do not boil it further, this will harden the paneer.
• Don't keep the pan over the paneer for more than 1-2 hours, as this will make it more condensed.
• For storage, keep the paneer immersed in cold water in the refrigerator.

Few more clicks from another batch :

Bye n Happy cooking

Priyanka:)