Paneer: Indian Cottage Cheese

Paneer is the most common cheese used in India. It is fresh, un-aged, non-melting and completely vegetarian. Unlike most cheeses, paneer is not coagulated used rennet. Instead, only fruit acids are used to curdle hot milk. The process of making paneer is simple. You heat up the milk and add in a curdling acid (lemon juice, vinegar, citric acid. effectively, anything acidic and edible) and separate the curds. Now what you do after this if your wish.
There exist variations across the country from this point on. What you do depends on what you want out of the end product. You can press dry it for a harder cheese or just hang it dry to get a softer, more moist version. You can ripen it or consume it un-aged. You can beat it smooth and make rasagullas or koftas or cut out slabs and make one of innumerable number of spicy dishes.

Here is the recipe I use to make paneer:
Ingredients:
1 Lt. Full Cream Cow's Milk
1 No. Juice of Whole Lemon

Procedure:
1. Bring milk to a boil.
2. Add the lemon juice.
3. Turn off the heat.
4. Strain the curds. Reserve the whey. There might be some use for it.
5. Leave to hang dry for 2-3 hours. Place under a weight and press dry, in case you require cubes or slabs.

Thats all there is to it, really! So go ahead and get your fix of this simple cheese.

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