Kitchen Tip / Cooking Tip : How to make Homemade Paneer / Indian Cheese

Paneer or Indian cottage cheese is a very versatile ingredient. It can be used for making stuffed parathas / naan , pakodas , curry , sandwiches and desserts. If you go to any Indian restaurant , the most popular dish that a vegetarian customer will choose will be a paneer dish , be it a starter or a curry.

Once you make paneer at home , I know for sure you will ignore the one at your neighborhood store shelf. The reasons for this are its easy to make paneer, its fresh and also it does turn out as soft as the store bought ones.

So follow these simple steps to make paneer at home and use it to make your favorite paneer dishes.

How to make paneer at home Recipe

Ingredients

Method

• Heat the milk in a heavy bottomed pan till it is gently boiling
• Now add half tbsp of the lemon juice and stir
• You will find that the milk has started to curdle
• Keep adding lemon juice gradually and keep stirring the milk gently
• The acidity of the lemon may differ and so ensure that you keep adding the juice little by little till you begin to see the whey separating from the curdle
• Switch off the stove once the whey has separated from the curdled milk
• Now take a cheesecloth and place it on a strainer and drain the whey. The curdles will collect in the cloth
• Wrap the cheesecloth over the paneer, rinse under water and squeeze well. This will remove sourness from the lemon
• After about half an hour , remove the cheesecloth and place a heavy weight like a heavy cooking utensil on it so that the cheese becomes flat. Keep this for around two to three hours
• Keep it refrigerated till you use it

Note

• You could use the whey for making rotis or chapatis. You will find that the rotis turn out soft
• You could substitute lemon with white vinegar