Paneer Cheese
Paneer Cheese is a traditional Indian recipe for the creation of a simple curd cheese that's a staple of Indian vegetarian cookery. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Indian dish of: Paneer Cheese.
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
20 minutes
Total Time:
40 minutes
Additional Time:
(+3 hours compacting)
Serves:
4
Rating: 
Tags : Vegetarian RecipesMilk RecipesCheese RecipesIndian Recipes
Paneer is a very simple to make Indian curd cheese that's a staple of many Indian dishes. It can be difficult to source in the shops, but is so ridiculously easy to make that there's no reason not to prepare it yourself.
The name itself, though Hindi, is derived from the Persian پنير
panir and is the most common form of South Asian cheese. It is also known as
Chhena in Bengali and
Chaman in Kashmiri (both words that derive from the hindi
Chhaan 'to strain' and effectively describe how the cheese is made.
Ingredients:
4l full-fat milk
lemon juice (or 1 tsp vinegar)
a cheese cloth or clean tea towel (or, at a pinch a clean t-shirt)
Method:
Add the milk to a pan and warm gently then add a little lemon juice to it. The aim here is to just add enough lemon juice for the milk to curdle (you're not trying to give the cheese a lemon flavour). Gently mix with a wooden spoon. As you do so, the milk should separate into a transparent liquid (the whey) and lumps of congealed white matter (the curds).
Use your cheese cloth (or other cloth) to line the inside of a strainer. Place this over a large bowl and tip your split milk into it. Allow the liquid to drain away naturally then lift the free ends of the cloth and twist so that the cloth tightens down on the cheese. This will force any moisture out of the cheese.
Twist as much as possible to remove as much liquid as you can then open the cloth package. Gently lift out the cheese and place in the bottom of a flat-bottomed bowl. Place a saucer on top then weight the saucer down with a weight (traditionally a filled iron teapot is used). Place in the fridge for about 3 hours so that the cheese has a chance to dry and set. If more water comes out, simply discard.
When done, your cheese is ready to use. Just cube and use as you would any store-bought paneer.
This is very much a basic recipe for a plain paneer and you can add flavourings such as cardamom, cumin seeds etc, as you wish.
