How to make Paneer?
Paneer is a fresh cheese which is popular in India. It is used to make dishes from curries to dessert. It can be made at home easily with just milk and some lime juice or vinegar and gives a rich and creamy taste when added to dishes. It is also called Chhena and is available in stores.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
8 cups of 2% milk yields around 250 to 300 gram of paneer.
Ingredients:
- 2% Milk – 8 cups
- Fresh lime juice – 4 tbsp (can substitute with 2 tbsp of vinegar)
- Warm water – 3 tbsp
Method of Preparation:
- Heat milk in a pan.
- Dilute lime juice or vinegar in water.
- When it starts boiling, add the lime juice to milk while constantly stirring.
- Milk starts curdling and separating. If not add some more lime juice.
- When it is fully curdled, remove from heat.
- Line a colander with a muslin cloth or a clean towel and place it over a container.
- Strain the curdled milk and separate the paneer (cheese). The liquid collected in the container is known as whey water.
- Gently wash the paneer with ice cold water to get rid off the citric acid taste.
- Tie the ends of cloth and squeeze the excess liquid from paneer and hang it for an hour.
- Paneer is ready.
For making paneer cubes:
- After hanging the paneer for half an hour, place it in between wooden boards or cutting boards and keep a heavy weight on top of it. Let it stand for a minimum of 3 hours or over night. You can use a vessel filled with water for the heavy weight.
- Refrigerate it and cut into cubes.
- You can either use fried paneer or fresh paneer for your curries.
Uses of Whey: Whey is the left over liquid from cheese preparation. It contains protein and other nutrients. Whey can be used for kneading chapathi dough, can be used in curries and gravies instead of water. Whey can also be used in the preparation of rasgulla for making the sugar syrup.
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Helpful post,its really hard to get perfect homemade paneer
I have tried doing this many times, but somehow the taste of this paneer is not the same as that I have tasted in restaurants. Plus when I have tried to fry the cubes, they disintegrate and just mix in the oil. There are remnants of the cubes in the end, but they are not this wholistic cubes that is seen everywhere or even in your images. Did you use home-made paneer in all your recipes? If yes, then how are the cubes intact after frying? How do you fry them? Thanks for the brilliant site and the wonderful tips till now.
Hi Akshaya, I agree sometimes when you make paneer at home, it may become soft and crumbly. To avoid this, place paneer in between two wooden boards or cutting boards and place a heavy weight or a flat bottomed container with water and leave it for about 2 hours. Additional liquid will be drained and paneer becomes a firm. Refrigerate it over night, cut it into cubes and fry it in oil/butter/ghee. You can also freeze it for later use. I have always tried this method and my paneer is firm. Thanks for stopping by.