Paneer – Indian Cheese

Homemade cheese made from whole milk and curdling agent.

Ingredients:

2.3 l of whole milk 5 tbsp lemon juice or 2 tsp citric acid (reagent)

Procedure:

1. Heat the milk over medium heat in a large enough saucepan to allow it to boil and not overflow
2. Prepare a clotting agent; fill a colander with two layers of cloth (e.g. When the milk starts to boil, stir in the coagulant, remove the pot from the heat source, almost immediately a sponge-like pan will start to separate from the yellow-green whey; if the whey is not clear, put the pot back on the hot source and add a little more coagulant
3. When the panicle and whey have completely separated, collect the panicle in a cheese cloth, rinse it under cold running water for about half a minute to solidify it and to remove any residue of the coagulant that might otherwise alter the flavour of the cheese
4. Squeeze out the remaining water in one of the following two ways: (a) To obtain a stiff pan for making cheese cubes or kneading into dough, tie the pan in a cloth and weight it for a few hours, the longer it is pressed the firmer it will be, then remove the weight, cut the cheese and use according to the appropriate recipes (b) The pan will also harden sufficiently if hung in a piece of cloth and allowed to drain
5. If you need a soft cheese, simply tighten a cloth around the cheese and squeeze out the water.

Note:

You can also use 300 ml of yoghurt as a reagent, or 600 ml of sour whey.