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 is how much water to take out from the paneer. To check if enough 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:
- 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 and imagination in any combination.
- Garnish your salad with small cubes of spiced paneer. Spiced paneer makes great pakoras.
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August 27th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Hi Jaya,
Thanks a lot for the tip mentioned,I will try making it again.
August 25th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Hi Gunjan,
I have used Hood, Garelick, and Oakhurst brand milks for paneer with no problems
.
If you use vinegar, make sure it’s the clear “distilled” vinegar.
What could have gone wrong? Possibly you did not use enough of the lemon juice or vinegar and/or you did not bring the milk to a full boil before adding the lemon juice or vinegar.
Bring the milk to a full, bubbling boil until it starts to come up the sides of the pot and then turn the heat off and quickly add the lemon juice or vinegar. Hope this helps.
August 25th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Hello Aunty,
I tried making paneer using Hood full cream milk,but after adding lemon juice also it did not curdle up.After that i tried with vinegar also but it did not work out.What i guessed was that the milk might contain preservatives that prevented it from curdling up even after adding lemon or vinegar.
Can you please tell the brand of milk that you used for making paneer ?Also let me know where i went wrong.I stay in United states.
Thanks
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Hi Aruna,
You can purchase cheese cloth from the cooking/baking section of most grocery stores or kitchen supply stores. It may also be called “muslin cloth”, but in the U.S., “cheese cloth” is a common term.
If you cannot find it, you can use any clean cotton kitchen towel that is not too thick.
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Namaste Aunty,
Could you please let me know where I can find the cheese cloth to make paneer? or is there any other way that we can make paneer with out cheese cloth (Using any other cloths) ? Thanks in advance.
Aruna
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 am
Hi! We watche and made paneer by ourself it came very nice and fresh, I appreciate you for your time & effort by uploading a video for paneer making.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Jaya Ji, thank you for ur reply……………………it was of great help.
August 8th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
I use white vinegar and you need much LESS vinegar. I don’t measure it, just pour it slowly into the boiled milk while stirring the milk. Once you see the milk start to seperate, stop the vinegar.
For 8 cups of milk, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and then slowly add another tablespoon until the milk seperates.
Sorry I don’t have exact measurements, but about 2 to 3 tablespoons should be sufficient.
August 8th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Hi Aunty ji,
I tried paneer with lemon juice and it came up well. Now, some people also use white vinegar to make paneer ; what quantity of vinegar should be added if replaced with lemon juice.
July 28th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Hello Leslie,
it appears you squeezed too much water or added too much lemon juice.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Hello Gayathri, with your discription it should be gulab jamun with cream
July 25th, 2008 at 4:01 am
Thankyou so much, I tried sweet dishes like rasagulla and ras malai it just turned out the perfect way even for the first time. I like to try other dishes too!
Recently I saw a sweet dish in a indian store, It was dark in colour, oval shape with a split in between which had a cream on the split, my son calls it as Hot-dog sweet!
I would like to know the name of it and how to make it?
Thanks
gayathri
July 24th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Hi Aunty-ji. Thank you for your beautiful website. I made paneer today for the first time, following your instructions, with 2% milk, but it came out quite crumbly and not smooth, and I was unable to cut it into squares to fry it for my palak dish.
Any suggestions?
Thanks so much. Keep up your wonderful work!
Leslie
July 18th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Thank you for showing us how to make indian recipes.
I like very much the videos.
Now I am no more afraid to try paneer !
Thara - France
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Hello bhavika, Paneer can be stored in fridge for 3 to 4 days or freeze for months. If you are freezing good idea to chopp the paneer in the size you will be using.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:37 am
Hello aunty,
Namaste.
For how long can the paneer be stored?
Should it be kept in the fridge or freezer?
Thanks
June 27th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Dear Auntyji,
You have a delightful website and it’s so nice to ask questions and get answers to make one’s cooking better.
Jaya
June 27th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Hello Jaya, thank you, I really appreciate and enjoy your precipitation this makes it very interesting and meaningful, so thank you again.
Manjula
June 27th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Hi Jennifer, I am another reader and have tried soy. I’m vegetarain, but not vegan.
Calling soy a “milk” is misleading when it comes to cooking, true milk is the basis for success with paneer and milk based sweets.
I’ve used tofu as a replacement for paneer cubes in veggie dishes as times, it’s passable but the taste and texture is not authentic. My husband didn’t go for it.
But to get back to your original question, I have never come across a way around using soy milk in place of cow’s milk.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Hi Manjula, your recipes are amazing! The way things look, I could be marrying a Pakistani man in a few years, and I could not be happier. As an avid chef and lover of Desi foods myself, I’ve been looking into a lot more Indian / Pakistani dishes lately (I wouldn’t want to deny him his cultural foods), so your website has been a GREAT help. I’ve just got one question… As a vegan, I have always wondered if paneer could be made with soy milk. I know tofu would suffice for certain recipes, but for things like ras malai, a favorite dish of my lucky man, tofu is out of the question. I’ve been dying to try some of these recipes calling for this kind of paneer, but the chemist inside me tells me that the properties of soy and cows’ milk are so different soy milk would not make good paneer. Any thoughts? If it wouldn’t work, is there something that could be added to soy milk in addition to lemon juice to make a good paneer?
June 25th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Hi manjula- Thanks a million for telling us how to make panner… i have been buying it from indian store which i think is expensive so inspite of liking it so much , we rarely used to buy it…now i can make it at home & enjoy !!
Thanks to you again.. Your recipies are gr88888, please keep uploading more n more videos….
June 20th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Mrs. Jain:
Yours worked absolutely perfectly, and I made your navratan korma recipe with it. Yum!
Thank you so much! This came out great. I gave up making paneer years ago, because it kept breaking apart. Later, I found out that the cookbook author admitted that she had the recipe wrong!
June 1st, 2008 at 6:08 pm
THANK YOU MS MANJU FOR SHOWING US HOW TO PREPARE PANEER, I HOPE I WILL BE SUCESS IN PREPAING IT SOMEDAY SOON RITA IN HOUSTON, TX
May 29th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Hi, Aunty i just saw your website today,it is beautyful congratulation on creating a website, i love all of your recipes though i do not make snacks as often as i want try your recipes thank you.
but when i need to make i
May 28th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Whey has lot of proteen, you can use making dough, soup, or any dal
May 28th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Auntyji,
As a great believer in not wasting anything, is the whey of any use at all?
May 26th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Hey Lem,
Thanks a million!!
I really appreciate your time and your sincerity towards cooking!!
Thats fantastic.
Now I know a little more about..MILK!!!!
Cheers,
Malini
May 26th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Thank you Lem, you have explained it so well and I like that interaction and sharing the knowledge and experiences.
May 26th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Please excuse me Auntyji for jumping in with an answer here. Firstly, many, many thanks to Aunty Manjula for sharing her knowledge and years of experience so freely with all.
2% milk is comparatively a low-fat milk, there’s even lower ones between 0.5% and 1% fat, which would probably be unsuitable for making paneer. See Standards Australia for definitions of milk:
http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/newsroom/factsheets/factsheets2008/milkpermeateapril2003903.cfm
[I'm sure the US and other countries have similar standards governing what the word "milk" is and how much fat, protein etc it should contain].
Your normal full-cream milk will be about 3.4% fat, which is just about how it comes from the cow (!) - practically nothing added or taken away. I’ve used this type of milk successfully to make paneer, but have to warn you not to be surprised how much milk is needed to make a small amount of cottage cheese. There is so much whey left after the process!
If you’re very busy, you can always substitute with commercially made paneer, I’ve found an Australian made one called “Lemnos”, and the paneer is very firm and well-pressed, very suitable for making vegetable dishes (palak paneer, subji etc.). The commercially made ones are good to keep handy (sealed vacuum packed, quite long shelf-life in the fridge), just in case you have to make a dish in a hurry. But home-made is better when it has to be blended into softer dishes like koftas or like aunty’s lovely sounding paneer burfi.
May 26th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Namaste auntyji,
Can I ask you what is 2% milk?
I live in sydney, and I buy normal full cream milk. Could you please explain what it means?
Thank you,
Malini