How to Make Paneer | Homemade Paneer Recipe by VinisCookBook

What Is Paneer?

Paneer is fresh cheese common in South Asia, especially in Indian, Pakistani, Afghan, Nepali, Sri Lankan, and Bangladeshi 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. Paneer is a versatile ingredient. It is soft and moist. You can actually plan a 3 or 4-course meal with paneer. This recipe is a strict teacher. You follow it well and it will give you the best of results.

How to make perfect Paneer at home?

  • Use full cream milk for the best results.
  • Mix vinegar with water and then add it to milk. This will avoid souring of paneer.
  • Do not stir the milk too much or too vigorously while curdling it.
  • Make sure you get big or large lumps of curds. Bigger the lumps are softer the paneer!
  • After the milk curdles, let the greenish water (whey) and paneer (curds) cool down completely before you strain off the water. You can add in cold water to fasten the process.
  • Hang it to drain out the excess water do not be tempted to squeeze it.
  • To avoid crumbly paneer, add cornflour to it, as mentioned in the recipe.

How to use Homemade Paneer?

Homemade Paneer can be used for making any paneer preparation. I use it for various paneer preparations. You may like our collection of Paneer Gravies Recipes.

How to Make Paneer

1. Boil 1-litre milk.

2. Once the milk boils, give it a very light stir so that the steam escapes. Let the milk cool for 5 minutes. If any layer of fat (malai) forms on it, remove it.

3. Mix 2 tbsp white vinegar in 1 cup water.

4. Add the water-vinegar mix to the boiled milk.

5. Give a very gentle stir while mixing it. DO NOT STIR RIGOROUSLY. The paneer will start to curdle. Remember big lumps of paneer will give you softer paneer, whereas if you stir rigorously you’ll get smaller lumps resulting in hard paneer. Now let this sit till it cools down to the room temperature.

6. Once it cools separate the greenish water from the paneer. For that line, a strainer with a muslin cloth and put it on a big bowl. Pour the mixture into this.

7. Take the four ends of the cloth, tie them together and hang at an appropriate place. DO NOT SQUEEZE IT. Leave it for an hour.

8. After an hour take it out on a dry kitchen towel. Give this mix a gentle massage with the heel of your palm for half a minute.

9. Add 1 tbsp corn flour. This is optional. I have made paneer without cornflour too and it stayed intact in the gravies.

10. Mix the paneer and corn flour.

11. Again give this mix a gentle massage with the heel of your palm till the paneer smoothens.

12. Bring the paneer together. Fold the kitchen towel into a square so that you get a big square of paneer and can get nice cubes thereafter.

13. Place some weight over this and leave it for 5 minutes.

14. Refrigerate the paneer for half an hour.

15. After half an hour cut it into cubes.

16. Paneer is ready for use.

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Author’s Name

Vini

Hi! I am CA Vini Mehta. A Chartered Accountant by profession, a food blogger by passion! First of all, I would like to thank you for stopping by at Viniscookbook, I hope you have a good time. Here, yo...u will find the recipes which have been tried, at times re-tried in my kitchen and relished on the dining table. I am mother of two kids and the wife of a person with a high and selective taste sense, so basically anything, before finding its place on the blog, has many levels to cross and clear. This journey started a couple of years back. Before that I was making the most usual kind of food. The only experiment used to be asking my mother how to make something new or different☺. Then, one day, I tried a recipe for butter cookies. And they did not get to go in the container as they were over before I could store them. That day I was introduced to the joy of experimenting with recipes. And I loved everything else that followed especially garnishing and photographing food. I am still not well versed with the photography dos and don’ts but I love to experiment and learn, be it photography or cooking. Hope you too enjoy this journey as much as I do☺! Stay healthy, stay tuned!.

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