Have you ever heard of flavored Indian Cottage Cheese, commonly called Paneer??
I always used the store bought Indian Cottage Cheese for the longest time before it struck me its too much of a hassle and maybe I can add my own twist to it at home. This was particularly fun because I tried this during one of my travels and we had literally only a gas burner where we stayed at this guest house!
I wanted to make Paneer from scratch and trust me I thought it was going to be so hard but it came out beautiful at the end of it and if I can do it with just a gas burner, a gallon of milk and some vinegar then so can you!!!!
I always try to incorporate something new to an old recipe so I tried to flavor my Paneer this time with some cumin, coriander powder and my favorite Indian herb which is Fenugreek leaves:)
All you need is:
1 Gallon of Whole Milk/ Low Fat
1 cup of Vinegar
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Coriander powder
1 tsp dried Fenugreek leaves
Mesh Strainer
Clean piece of Muslin Cloth(or any thin clean cloth through which water will pass)
Preparation
As in every case, the more fat your milk contains the end product which is your Indian Cottage Cheese is likely to be creamier than if you use low fat or fat free!
1) Pour milk onto a crock pot and bring it to a boil and immediately lower the gas as you see it boil!
I told you I had the bare minimum to work with:(
2) Add cumin, coriander powder and the dried fenugreek leaves to the milk and stir well so that it blends into the milk.
3) Now add the Vinegar slowly into the milk stirring continuously but gradually.
4) You will see the milk curdle almost instantaneously but give it some time to curdle completely.
5) Pour this mixture through a muslin cloth to separate the water from the curdled milk.
6) Drain out all the excess water carefully without burning your fingers:) through the muslin cloth.
7) Tie a knot and squeeze gently through a strainer to take out all remaining water. I used a strainer in this step so that even if the crumbled cheese manages to escape through the cloth I can still get it in the strainer:)
8) I wanted to use something to weigh over this knotted cottage cheese so I used a steel vessel(the only one that I could get a hold of!) that would serve the purpose and let it rest undisturbed for about 10 minutes or so.
9) Open it up after atleast 10 minutes and you will see the beautiful Indian Cottage Cheese staring at you:)
Use your home made Indian cottage cheese in curry. You can also refer to my recipe: Creamy Cottage Cheese Curry Prepared in a Wok. I would appreciate your feedback and thanks much. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love these simple cheeses, and Paneer always turns out so delicious.
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I’d never had this type of cheese before, or even heard of it, but I decided today I wanted to make cheese, but didn’t have access to rennet. I am pressing my Paneer with cast iron skillets right now, and like you, added spices and herbs to my first batch (dill, garlic, ground pepper, thyme, etc) The drained curds tasted really nice, and I can’t wait to use the cheese in some of the Mexican style foods we like, and was happy to see that you also added herbs and spices to yours because I felt I had “ruined” the whole intention of having a bland, neutral flavored cheese!
Thank u. I will soon be posting new recipes. Appreciate your kind words.