Making Paneer (Cottage Cheese) at Home

Paneer or cottage cheese is a kind of mild flavoured cheese. It is not aged or coloured and are a staple in the Indian vegetarian cuisine. There is so much you can do with paneer. They can be stir fried, deep fried, stuffed, curried, make wonderful desserts and just anything you want. They are great in salads too. 

Paneer is available in store very easily, but I have always preferred them home made. Its so easy to make, just 2 simple ingredients. Because they are really fresh compared to the store bought one which are processed to have a longer storage life. And homemade ones are amazingly soft and economical too ;)

A cup of paneer made with low fat milk are a good source of protein, low in cholesterol and fat . But paneer made from whole milk or full fat milk are more creamy in texture (of course comes with a HIGH calorie tag). The paneer I make at home are from low fat milk and they are just fine.

Makes Approx 200g

You Will Need:

2 litres of Milk (Whole or less fat)

Approx. Juice of a Lime (I always use lime juice)

Or

1/2 Cup of Curd Approx.

The Cooking:

Place milk in a heavy bottom vessel and bring it to boil (DO NOT ADD WATER). Keep the heat on medium low, you don’t want to burn the milk.

 

Once the milk starts to boil, add the lime juice or curd.

Now, the milk will start to separate or curdle.

Keep a damp cheese cloth or a muslin cloth ready over a strainer. As soon as you see the whey (green coloured liquid) and the lumps of paneer separated, strain them over the prepared cheese cloth.

Run it once under cold water and bring the ends together of the cheese cloth, twist the top and  make a knot. You can either hang this on your kitchen tap or Place this over the strainer and place something bit heavy on top. This will help in squeezing out the whey quickly from the paneer.

Let this rest for 30 min or until all the excess water is drained from the paneer. It tastes best when used immediately or you can zip lock it and store in the refrigerator until next day.

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Happy Cooking!