Making Paneer

With the help of Google and YouTube, I was really excited to learn how to make Paneer. Paneer is a type of Indian cheese with a very plain taste that doesn't easily melt like our regular American or Provolone cheeses (man, I miss cheese). Since its used in a lot of different Indian vegetarian dishes and I have never seen it in the States, I wanted to be able to make it when we return home. Surprisingly, its super easy to make!

First, bring your milk to a boil (I used 1 liter).

When milk begins to boil (before it starts to boil rapidly), slowly add lemon juice (about 3-4tbsp) and stir with  heat on low.

Milk will start to separate into curds(cheese) and whey (milk liquid) {ahh, Little Miss Muffet FINALLY makes sense now!}. If the milk isn't separating you might need to add more lemon juice. Once separated, turn off the heat.

Using cheese cloth or any other thin type of cloth, strain your cheese.

Rinse the cheese with cold water to remove any lemon taste. While still inside the cloth, squeeze out excess water from the cheese; the more excess water you squeeze, the harder the cheese will settle. You can wrap the cheese in a cloth and form into a block shape if you wish by placing two flat and heavy surfaces on either side. Let it sit and cool for about 30 mins. You can use it for cooking immediately or else store in the refrigerator.

Our 1 liter of milk made about 100 grams of paneer (not very much) so don't feel bad when you look at the finished product and think somebody stole your milk! Its normal :-)

We used our paneer to make paneer paranthas, just like my previous onion paranthas.

Enjoy!