Home Made Paneer | Indian Cheese Recipe

Paneer is a fresh cheese common in South Asia, especially used in Indian cuisines. It is an unaged, acid-set, non-melting farmer cheese or curd cheese made by curdling heated milk with lemon juice, vinegar, or any other food acids. It’s crumbly and moist form is called chenna in eastern India. This can be used to make several Indian recipes such as sweets and side dishes which I will be sharing soon.

This is prepared by adding food acid, such as lemon juice, vinegar, citric acid or yogurt, to hot milk to separate the curds from the whey. The curds are drained in muslin or cheesecloth and the excess water is pressed out. The resulting paneer is placed in the refrigerator for an hour to set and improve its texture and appearance.

Steps to be noted to make Paneer :

• Use full-fat milk / whole milk.
• If cow milk is used paneer would be in white color or if it is buffalo milk paneer would be pale yellow color.

You can buy it at any stores nowadays, but homemade tastes much fresher. This is the first time I am making this at home and it turned out well. so I wanted to share with you.

Home Made Paneer | Indian Cheese Recipe

Print Recipe

How to make Paneer at home.

• CuisineIndian

Servings	Prep Time
2 people	1 hour

Cook Time

20 minutes

Servings Prep Time 2 people 1 hour

Cook Time 20 minutes

Home Made Paneer | Indian Cheese Recipe Print Recipe How to make Paneer at home. CuisineIndian Servings Prep Time 2 people 1 hour Cook Time 20 minutes Servings Prep Time 2 people 1 hour Cook Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 litre Milk full fat
• 4 tbsp Lemon juice

Servings: people

Instructions

1. Place a Kadai and set to medium heat. Pour milk and bring it to a boil. Now add lemon juice slowly and mix it thoroughly.

   
2. It should start to curdle straight away. Now turn off the flame and let it be there for few minutes to give the acid time to separate the curds and whey. Line a sieve with a large piece of muslin / cheesecloth and place it over a bowl. Carefully pour the mixture into the sieve to collect the curds in the muslin. Place it under cold running water to get rid of any leftover whey. Gather the muslin in your hand and squeeze out the excess liquid. Even you can hang it for half an hour to remove excess liquid.

   
3. Now flatten the gathered curds to 1/2 an inch height. Now place a weight over it to get set for 15 minutes. Then remove paneer carefully and place it in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Then cut it into 1-inch pieces.

   

Recipe Notes

• If you want to make good quality paneer always use full-fat milk.
• Refrigerator setting is a must as it gives smoothness while cutting.
• You can keep it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days and up to 6 months in the freezer.
• 1-litre milk yields 150 to 175 gms of paneer.

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Paneer is ready to use in any of your favorite dishes.