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How to make Paneer
May 24th, 2008 filed under 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.
Are you familiar with methods used to make VEGAN paneer? I don’t drink milk and I do my best to stay away from dairy. I’m curious if there’s a Master Vegan Paneer Maker out there.
Paneer made with anything other than milk will have a different taste and texture. Tofu can be used to replace milk based paneer, but you give up authenticity in the taste. For some recipes, tofu just doesn’t work and cannot be used as a substitute.
i tried making this but i think i did something wrong. it seemed good and the paneer was nice and firm after i pressed it. i then went to use it in your butter paneer masala recipe, and found that it started to melt when i fried it.. so i didn’t fry it completely. when i used it in the recipe, i found that the paneer melted and disintegrated quit a lot into the sauce! what went wrong? i thought paneer was not supposed to melt!
oh, when i drained the paneer in the cheesecloth, i found it stuck in the cloth and was hard to remove..
i have tried this 2 times but it not make dry its made too sticky its not live the cloth i m so upset 2 time it didnt make i put havy weight also
Excellent demonstration. I followed your video and prepared paneer. It came out really well.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe + the video demonstration. I made this exactly as you directed (to use in palak paneer), and it turned out perfectly. So glad to have a foolproof method and recipe for making this wonderful cheese.
[...] pie, with a whole wheat garlic naan crust and a spinach (palak) curry as the sauce. Instead of paneer, I used ricotta– it’s hard to believe, but it’s essentially the same cheese [...]
This is the best recipe easy to follow with the demonstration video that I have found. I feel confident that I can now make this delicious cheese. Thanks.