Paneer Cheese Making Recipe
Paneer, sometimes spelt Panir is a simple traditional Indian cheese used in many vegetarian cooking dishes. This cheese is great with stir fried spinach or other greens as it absorbs the flavours of whatever is cooked with it.
Ingredients - Metric
Makes ~1.0 kg of Paneer Cheese:
- 5 litres fresh cow's milk.
- 185 ml of lemon juice diluted in ~250 ml cool water or 250 ml yogurt.
Ingredients - American
Makes ~1.75 pounds of Paneer Cheese:
- 1 US gallon fresh cow's milk.
- 5 ounces lemon juice diluted in 1 cup cool water or 6 ounces yogurt.
Directions
- Pour milk into stockpot on stove on smallest ring.
- Heat milk until boiling using medium heat and ensure doesn't catch/form skin on bottom.
- When boiling, turn down heat and dribble in diluted lemon juice or yogurt while stirring thoroughly to distribute. Milk should separate into large fluffy curds and watery whey. Once curds start forming, turn off heat, otherwise curds will become too cooked and less moist and tougher. Note, if don't get good separation or whey isn't clear, then re-warm and add more diluted lemon juice or yogurt and stir again.
- Let sit and when curds no longer float (~10 minutes), ladle or pour the curds and whey through a fine weave cheesecloth lining a colander placed in sink allowing whey to be disposed down drain.
- When curds are reasonably drained, bring 4 corners of cheesecloth together and lift curds up out of colander, then twist cloth until curds are in ball at end (middle of cloth). Squeeze lightly to remove more whey.
- Place the ball on flat draining surface at room temp, place heavy weight on top, and let sit for ~4 hours or until firm consistency.
- Use cheese immediately or place in food grade covered container in fridge for up to 2 weeks.