Paneer (pronounced panir) is a type of cheese made in Indian homes and used almost exclusively for cooking. It’s used in rich dishes like palak paneer, a creamy spinach soup encased in cubes of paneer.
It’s common to cut it into cubes, and before adding it to stews, you can briefly toast the cheese in a pan to give it a beautiful golden color, as well as a firmer texture. In this paneer recipe, we’ll explain how to make this popular ingredient in Indian cuisine.
Print Recipe: Paneer (Indian Cheese)
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings: 2
Cuisine: Indian
Calories: 216
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Whole milk | 1 ½ liters |
| White vinegar or lemon juice (approx.) | 3 tablespoons |
Method
- We mix 3 tablespoons of white vinegar with 3 tablespoons of water and set it aside.
- Place a colander in a large bowl. Place a muslin or cheesecloth on top of the colander.
- We prepared a glass of cold water for later.
- Heat the milk over medium‑high heat. Stir occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom.
- When it comes to a boil, lower the heat and gradually add the vinegar mixture while stirring gently.
- When we observe that the milk solids have separated from the somewhat greenish whey, we add a glass of cold water that we have set aside before, to break the cooking process.
- Next, pour the mixture into the strainer you prepared. The milk solids will remain in the strainer’s mesh. These milk solids are actually the fresh cottage cheese we’ll use to make our Paneer.
- We put the strainer under the tap and gently wash the cottage cheese so that it doesn’t have a lemon or vinegar taste.
- If we want to salt the paneer, now is the time. Mix half a liter of lukewarm water with salt (about 2 teaspoons) and wash the ricotta with this salted water.
- We gather the cloth into a ball and gently squeeze the outside to remove as much water as possible. We tie a knot and then hang it for an hour to allow the remaining water to drain.
- After an hour, we untie the knot, gather the cloth again, and flatten the ball of cottage cheese on the outside by pressing it with our hand to form a disc. We open the cloth and wrap the cottage cheese disc to create a uniform surface.
- Place a folded kitchen towel on a flat plate and put the ricotta cheese wrapper on top. Place a weight (a pot of water or a mortar and pestle, for example) on top. This will keep the ricotta disc even and allow the towel underneath to absorb any excess water.
- We left it like that for half an hour with the weight on. Then we removed the Paneer block from the cloth. We stored it in the refrigerator for an hour before using it.
Video Guide 🎥
Grades (Notes)
- To make cutting easier, we keep the Paneer in the refrigerator for half an hour before cutting.
- Paneer can be stored in the refrigerator for 3‑4 days. To do this, place it in a container of water, ensuring it is completely submerged. Change the water daily.
- Once the milk curdles, you shouldn’t continue cooking. That’s why you need to add cold water. This stops the cooking process and results in a much softer paneer.
- Nor should you leave the weight on it for too long, that makes the Paneer hard.
- When cooking dishes with Paneer, always add the Paneer at the last minute.
- With one and a half liters of milk we will obtain approximately 210g of Paneer.