Homemade Paneer (Indian cheese)

Weather here is not giving any break from snow and wind chills. With such low temperatures I just dont feel like getting up on weekends. On such lazy mornings, I get little bored of day to day cooking. Only thing which makes me go in the kitchen on weekends is trying something new.  If I am doing something different than my regular dishes, I get excited to cook. :) This weekend  I decided to make Paneer at home for some wonderful dinner. I have never made Paneer at home before this Saturday and I really wondered why I did not try this before. It is so easy to make Paneer at home rather than buying little costly Paneer from Indian store. Also home made fresh Paneer tastes so much better!

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon (8 Cups) whole milk
4-5 tbsp lemon juice

cheesecloth or thin cotton piece

Method:

1. Heat milk in a vessel till it boils. Occasionally stir milk to avoid it sticking to bottom.
2. Just before milk rises, add lemon juice. Stir and switch off the heat.
3. Stir properly so that lemon juice gets mixed nicely to milk. Soon milk will separate into small curd like granules and water (whey).

4. The color of whey(water separated) should be greenish yellow. If it is not greenish yellow, it means there is still some fats present in it. Add some more lemon juice in such case.
5. Let this rest  for few minutes. When it has cooled down a little bit ( It should still be warm) drain mixture through cheesecloth or any thin cotton cloth.  Paneer will get collected in cloth. Make sure you collect the whey too in some vessel. This whey is nutritious and can be used for making chapati/roti dough. Chapatis made with such dough comes out really soft.Also you can use this whey for making gravys. This water helps making gravys cremy and rich.
6. Bring edges of cloth together and squeeze it to remove excess water present.
7. Keep cloth covered panner on a flat surface. Flatten paneer by patting to rectangular shape. Flatten it till you get required thickness.
8. Put any flat surface on cloth covered paneer. On its top place anything heavy. I had put my pressure cooker filled completely with water. Keep like this for 2-3 hours.
9. Cut paneer into cubes of required size.

 Half gallon of milk will make more than 250 gms of paneer. Enjoy taste of fresh home made paneer!

Preparation time: 20-25 minutes.