Homemade Paneer Cheese: Recipe

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Some people prefer to cook sausages, pates and other products with their own hands. It turns out often much tastier than store-bought options. This article will discuss how to make paneer cheese at home. It is prepared according to the Adyghe principle and can be used in many dishes.

General Features

Indian paneer cheese is one of the most famous and popular. It is made from homemade cottage cheese, pressed to a dense mass. Classic paneer should have a fresh taste. Cheese can be served as a cold appetizer, used in salads, soups or desserts.

Benefits of homemade cheese

Homemade paneer cheese is quick and easy to make. Cooking requires village milk (or with a high fat content, closer to the present) and a sour product, which can be in the form:

• yogurt;
• lemon juice;
• kefir;
• sour cream.

Panel does not melt or lose its shape during heat treatment. Cheese belongs to the variety of dense, therefore, when cut, it does not crumble. Paneer made at homebetter and cheaper than store bought.

Paneer cheese made from milk and citric acid

Most often people prefer to cook paneer at home with citric acid. It can be replaced with lemon juice, which will require more. This recipe specifies the minimum amount of lemon. You can add more if you wish. For homemade cheese you will need:

• 1 liter of milk;
• 1 tsp citric acid;
• 0.5 tsp s alt.

Milk is best taken at home. If you use the store, it is desirable with a short shelf life. Super pasteurized will not work. The milk is poured into a large saucepan and brought almost to a boil. Then citric acid is poured into it. Everything is thoroughly mixed.

As soon as the foam begins to rise, the pan is removed from the heat. Or it is reduced to a minimum, and the milk warms up for another 3 minutes. All this time the mixture must be stirred. It will be clearly seen how milk is divided into curd and whey.

A sieve or colander is taken and covered with a thick layer of gauze. The contents of the pan are poured into it. After the moisture drains, the gauze is twisted into a knot. All the liquid is squeezed out as much as possible. Any shape is taken (jar, deep bowl, etc.) and the appearance of the cheese is formed.

Then the gauze with it is put back into the colander or sieve. A press is applied on top of the cheese mass. You can use an ordinary three-liter jar filled with water. The curd mass is kept underpress for at least 60 minutes. The cheese is then taken out and rinsed under running water to smooth the surface of the product.

Paneer from milk and kefir

You can often make quality food at home. One of my favorite treats is paneer cheese. The recipe for cooking on kefir will require the following ingredients:

• 1L milk with maximum fat content;
• 150 ml of kefir.

Milk is poured into the pan and put on fire until it boils. Then kefir is poured in a thin stream. In this case, the mass is constantly stirred. After a couple of minutes, the process of separating the whey from the curd will begin. After that, dense pieces will float to the surface.

A colander is lined with gauze in several layers. The contents of the pan are poured onto the cloth. You must wait until the serum is completely drained. Then the gauze is tightly tightened and placed in a deep bowl. Pressed on top. Any large container filled with water can be used as it.

Spice paneer (cheese)

The recipe for cooking with spices differs little from the classic version. For the dish you will need:

• 2 liters of milk (with the highest fat content);
• juice squeezed from half a lemon;
• 30 g dried spices (tomato wedges, paprika, dill, etc.);
• s alt to taste.

The milk is poured into a large saucepan and heated, but not brought to a boil. In this case, the liquid is constantly stirred. Then the burner turns off and into the warmed milkjuice from half a large lemon survives. It will be better if this is done in advance and the juice is strained through a strainer or cheesecloth.

While the lemon liquid is slowly pouring in, constant stirring is needed for five minutes. You will immediately see how the milk begins to curdle. After that, it will separate into whey and curd. The bottom of the colander is lined with gauze. The contents of the pot are poured out and left for a while until the excess whey drains.

If the mass is constantly stirred, the process will go much faster. During it, s alt and dried spices are added. After all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, the gauze is tightly twisted into a knot. The latter is pressed with oppression. Two hours is enough to form the cheese. It is better if the product under oppression is in the cold.

Fried paneer

Preparing paneer cheese, as it turned out, is a simple matter. But not everyone knows how to fry the finished product correctly. Paneer does not melt at all from high temperatures and therefore does not lose its shape. But properly fried cheese takes on an unusual, unique taste.

Again, a lot depends on the consistency of the product. Hard paneer is easy to fry. It is cut into small slices, rolled in spices and fried in a pan with vegetable oil. Soft cheese is prepared in a slightly different way. For fried paneer you will need:

• 200g cheese (soft);
• 1 tsp butter ghee;
• 0.5 tbsp l. cumin;
• a pinch of ground black pepper;
• a quarter teaspoon of turmeric;
• 1 tbsp l. sour cream;
• 0, 5 bunches parsley;
• a quarter teaspoon of s alt.

Clarified butter (if not available) can be replaced with regular olive oil. On it, over a high fire, cumin is fried. At the same time, it must be constantly mixed. The cumin is fried until it turns golden brown. This is when the seasoning releases all of its flavor into the oil.

Slices of paneer are added to the pan, then sprinkled with turmeric and s alt. Everything cooks for a few minutes. At the same time, it is constantly mixed. Then the dish is removed from the fire, pepper and sour cream are added. Everything is mixed and chopped greens are sprinkled on top.

How much citric acid do you need for cheese?

The amount of citric acid used to make paneer directly depends on the quality of the milk. There are many types of it sold in stores. Many have added special ingredients that prevent milk from curdling quickly. Therefore, more than one teaspoon of citric acid may be required. But even then, the milk still comes out whitish instead of yellow.

Features of making cheese

After a coagulant has been added to the milk, the resulting product cannot be kept on fire for a long time. Otherwise, the paneer cheese will become very tough. If you want to get crumbly cheese, then seasoning turmeric is added during cooking. The remaining whey is secondarya product that can be used to prepare other dishes (pancakes, okroshka, etc.).

If, despite the large amount of coagulant added to the milk, the expected dense solid layer is not formed, then the product is removed from the heat and left to “rest” for several hours. During this period, solid particles will rise above the whey and a curd layer will appear.

Citric acid, which is usually used to make paneer cheese, is easily replaced by other ingredients. For example, sour milk whey. It will take 150 ml to curdle 600 ml of milk. The second option is yogurt. With its use, the sourdough turns out to be thick and very tasty. It takes 5 tablespoons of yogurt to curdle 600 ml of milk.

But the easiest option is squeezed lemon juice. It gives a sour taste. It will need at least 5 tablespoons per 2 liters of milk. Once the cheese is ready, it can be served as a separate dish cut into pieces (with or without sauce), or overcooked with spices.

The higher the fat content of milk, the tastier the final product will be. If gauze is not available, it is replaced with a clean white cotton fabric (without print and paint). S alt or granulated sugar can be added before the curdling of milk has begun.

There are special devices and containers for making cheese. If the milk does not curdle in any way, then you can try to boil it. This requires constant stirring. For paneer stale orsour milk is not suitable. It is also problematic to make low-fat cheese.

How to achieve the desired density of cheese?

Paneer cheese can be made hard or not so hard. There are two different methods for this. In order to make the cheese dense, you need to tie the gauze in which the product lies and press it down with a press.

The paneer should lie until all the whey has drained. The longer it sits, the tighter it will become. For a soft consistency, the paneer is placed in gauze. It is tied tightly and left in a colander until all the moisture drains and the cheese becomes firm.