how to make paneer at home | homemade paneer | cottage cheese recipe

blessmyfoodbypayal

how to make paneer at home ; simple and easy process of making cottage cheese.

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 15

Total Time 20

Course Raw Ingredient

Cuisine Indian

Servings 300 grams

Boil milk in a pan.
When the milk starts boiling, lessen the flame to low. Add curd spoon by spoon and stir gently.
Milk will start curdling and milk-solids separate from the liquid.
switch off the flame and remove the pan from flame.
Place a muslin cloth over strainer & place the strainer in another big vessel so that the whey (liquid portion) of the curdled milk can be collected in the vessel.
pour curdled milk into the strainer in which the muslin cloth is arranged.
Bring the boundaries of the cloth to the center, tie and hang it up till the excess water completely drips on its own.
When the water is completely off, place muslin cloth holding milk solids on a chapati maker (on which chapatis are being rolled) & put some heavy object (i used iron kadahi filled with water) on it for about 30 minutes.
Remove the heavy object. unlock the knot of muslin cloth and you will find a white slab kind of thing.
This is your Paneer/cottage cheese.

As a substitute of Full Fat milk, you can also use the regular milk but the quality of milk makes a variation in the quantity of your paneer. Better the milk is, best the quantity of paneer will be.
Instead of curd/yoghurt, lemon juice or vinegar can also be used but in that case, you have to wash the curdled milk at least twice after completing the process mentioned in para no. 6 herein above, so that the flavor of lemon or vinegar is washes away. And this part i.e. washing cheena becomes more important if you have plans to make some dessert out of this paneer.
This point has nothing to do with this recipe but a mere suggestion that the whey collected in para 5 is full of proteins and nutrients, so never throw it away. Do try a unique recipe “ whey soup” from the whey or use it for kneading the dough. It makes chapatis more soft. Rest, your choice.
The idea behind adopting what has been mentioned in para 8 is only to put the curdled milk solids beneath pressure so that the excess water is squeezed completely. You can implement any method depending upon your suitability & preference.
The more you place the curdled milk solids under pressure, the more solid will be your paneer.

Keyword cheese, cottage cheese, paneer