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Prep Time: 0 Minutes Cook Time: 0 Minutes |
Ready In: 0 Minutes Servings: 8 |
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Basic indian paneer (farmer or cottage cheese) Ingredients:
8 cups of whole milk |
4 tablespoons lemon juice |
3 tablespoons cider vinegar |
3 tablespoons water |
8 ounces plain yogurt |
Directions:
1. MAKING INDIAN CHEESE: Bring 8 cups of milk to a boil in a deep
2. heavy-bottomed 3- or 4-quart saucepan or casserole, stirring often to
3. prevent sticking. Reduce heat and add one of the following starters: 4
4. tablespoons lemon juice, 3 tablespoons cider vinegar mixed with 3
5. tablespoons water, or one cup (8 ounces) plain yogurt. (I tend to use lemon
6. juice more often than the other starters because I have found the curd
7. produced is much softer and delicate.) Stir gently until the white curd
8. forms and separates from the greenish-yellow whey (about 10 seconds if you
9. are using lemon juice or vinegar and 30 seconds to a minute if you are using
10. plain yogurt). Once the curd begins to form, the contents of the pot should
11. be stirred very slowly and gently, as though stroking it, so that the
12. freshly-formed fragile curds do not disintegrate into small pieces. The
13. curd should be in lumps. Immediately turn off the heat. Pour the cheese and
14. whey through a colander or large sieve, lined with a thin fabric or four
15. layers of cheesecloth and placed in the kitchen sink. (If you intend to make
16. cheese again within 24 hours, save the whey to add to the next batch of
17. boiling milk instead of using lemon juice, vinegar, or yogurt; cheese made
18. with whey has a softer curd and a more authentically Indian aroma. This is
19. what the pastry shops in India use as a starter, day after day.) Hold the
20. colander or sieve under the tap and let cold water run, at a medium flow,
21. through the curds in the cheesecloth for 10 seconds - to wash away whatever
22. remains of the smell of lemon juice, vinegar, or yogurt. Bring up the four
23. corners of the cheesecloth and tie them together. Gently twist to extract as
24. much water as possible, and hang the cheese to drain for 1 1/2 hours (a good
25. spot is the door handle on a kitchen cabinet directly over the sink).
26. This drained, crumbly, slightly moist cheese is chenna. To make the cheese
27. into cakes ( paneer ), set the cheese - still in the cheesecloth - on a
28. clean flat surface and place a weight (such as a large pot filled with
29. water) on it for half an hour. Remove the weight, take the compressed cheese
30. out of the cheesecloth, and place it back on the flat surface. With a sharp
31. knife cut the cheese into neat rectangles. Paneer keeps well in the
32. refrigerator for 4 days.
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