How to make Paneer
May 24th, 2008 filed under Gluten Free, Miscellaneous, Paneer (Indian Cheese)
Paneer is a homemade Indian cheese. Paneer is used many different ways making desserts, appetizers and main course dishes.
Paneer (how to)
Ingredients:
- 8 cups (half gallon) milk
- 1/4 cup lemon Juice
Method:
- Mix lemon juice in half cup of hot water and put aside.
- Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, making sure not to burn milk.
- As the milk comes to a boil, add the lemon juice gradually and stir the milk gently. The curd will start separating from the whey, turn off the heat.
- Once the milk fat has separated from the whey, drain the whey using a strainer line with cheesecloth, or muslin cloth.
- Wrap the curds in a muslin cloth, rinse under cold water, and squeeze well. This process takes out the sourness from the lemon.
- To take out the excess water, press the wrapped paneer under a heavy pan for about 1 hour.
Tips:
If paneer will be used to make any dessert dish:
- The most important part of making paneer for dessert is how much water to take out from the paneer.
- To check if right amount of water is out of the paneer, take a little piece of paneer on your palm and rub with your fingers. After rubbing the paneer for about 15-20 seconds, you should be able to make a firm but smooth ball.
- For making sweets, paneer can be refrigerated for 1 to 2 days.
- Paneer from half-gallon milk will make about 15 to 20 rasgullas.
- I suggest 2% milk for rasgullas, rasmalai, chamcham or any other dish in that category.
- For sandaish, burfee or any other such dish use regular milk.
If paneer will be used for making main dishes:
- Before Pressing the paneer knead it enough so paneer is not crumbly.
- Press the paneer instead one hour, two hours making firmer.
- Cut the paneer to desired shape. Paneer can be refrigerated for a few days or kept frozen for months.
Variations:
- Add salt to the paneer, if you like with your choice of spices one or more, including black pepper, roasted cumin seed, chopped green chilies, chopped cilantro (Hara Dhania) or to your taste.
[...] Making the cheese was surprisingly easy and did not take long. I followed the recipe posted on Manjula’s Kitchen blog. The recipe is accompanied by a YouTube Video posted at the same link. It’s very [...]
[...] Link for Video on homemade India Paneer Cheese: Manjula’s Kitchen [...]
[...] evening, I attempted to make my own palak paneer, with my own home-made paneer [...]
[...] that can be found at Indian or international markets (if you have a hard time finding it, you can make it yourself, I’ve never made it though, so I can’t vouch for how it would work in this recipe). [...]
Manjulaji,
Could you tell me how to prepare fresh cream at home?
Kani
Di
I really like the way you explain…luv ur recipes.Just wanted to know that from 8 cups of whole milk how much amount of paneer would be obtained
Thnx
Thank you!
I’ve just tried the recipe once, and it worked fairly well, but it seemed that I produced an awful lot of whey, and relatively little curd. Do you have any suggestions about how to encourage more solidification? Perhaps adding more acid?
Thanks
Anne
Yeah, it does that, but the whey is great for so many things. Don’t see it as a bad thing, or pour the whey down the drain. Use it wherever a recipe calls for water. It works wonders. One of my wife’s favorites is to make bread and stuff it with the cheese. You want the whey to make that bread, for instance.
Hi I would like to make my Paneer with “soy milk” not the regular milk, for vegan. but my soy milk is not separate with adding lemon jounce then what should I do please help me with that, thanks a lot
That would make tofu, not paneer! You can make tofu/”soy paneer” with lemon juice as solidifier, but I think it is easier to use apple cider vinegar. The resulting “cheese” will not have the same properties as paneer made with milk, of course. Do a search for “home made tofu” and you will find a plethora of sites to help you!