Say (Paneer) Cheese!

Hi all,

Our biggest project going this week is getting the Bee on a schedule. She’s really taken to it, so the only hard part has been training myself to stick to it.

Today, things went so well that we got a chance to play out in the yard:

She sat up on her own once the other day, and keeps looking like she'll do it again!

and go for a swim. It’s fabulous living in Southern California where we can do summertime things in the middle of November!

Now that Ada’s napping on schedule, I’m getting around to a few things that have been on my “to do” list for quite some time. Today, I made paneer.

I love Indian food. My first introduction to it was in high school, when a family friend took me out to dinner and introduced me to chicken tikka masala, dal, and saag paneer. It was love at first bite. I’ve wanted to try my hand at making a cheese for a while, so when I started craving the creamy spinachy goodness that is saag paneer, it was easy to decide what the first cheese should be.

There seem to be two common ways to make paneer: one involving lemon or lime juice, and the other involving buttermilk. After a little research, I decided the buttermilk recipe was for me. People mentioned that it was lighter, sweeter and creamier than its citrus counterpart, so that seemed the way to go.

So, without further ado:

How to Make Paneer Cheese

Measure out four parts whole milk to one part buttermilk.

Put the milk in a heavy pan and heat on medium-high heat until boiling, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

Reduce heat to medium. Add buttermilk, then bring back to a boil. The curds will begin to separate from the whey.

After cooking for around 5 minutes, the curds will have completely separated. Leave to cool for 15-20 minutes.

Line a bowl with cheesecloth. Pour the curds and whey into the bowl, then lift and twist the cheesecloth to separate out the curds and press out the whey.

Tie a string around the cheesecloth and hang it from the faucet for 2 or 3 hours. Go do something fun!

Invert a salad plate over a dinner plate (the dinner plate will catch the runoff during this next step).

Center the cheese on the salad plate.

Place a pan full of water on top of the cheese (I just used the pan I cooked the milk in). Leave it there for 2 or 3 hours. Go take a nap.

When you pull off the pan, you'll have a squashed cheese patty.

Unwrap and either enjoy or refrigerate. Keeps for 2-3 days. I used 6 cups of milk and 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk, and was rewarded with about half a pound of cheese. It's delicious!

Tomorrow: How to Make Saag Paneer!