Make paneer

...If only I could think of some famous Hindus and make “The Diwali Song.”

I made paneer yesterday (ON Diwali, no less; what a way to celebrate!) using this recipe from the BBC. It was SO easy, although it didn’t make that much. I’m throwing it in the freezer for a couple of days until I find an absolutely amazing recipe to use it in.

Palak paneer is my favorite, favorite, FAVORITE food on earth. If I am ever sentenced to death row, A)it will be a gross injustice, because I am a virtual pacifist, and B) my last meal will be palak paneer, jasmine rice, and gulab jamun. And maybe cheesecake, because I am multicultural.

I learned to cook Indian food because I learned to love it in college, but when I moved home after graduation, there were no Indian restaurants around. I mean, I could barely find garam masala in the grocery store. We’re talking NO Indian food, except what I could make myself. Most of it wasn’t terribly hard to replicate, but I still have never made palak paneer for myself. What a wonderful thing, to know that I could have it whenever I wanted!

Last week I was at a yuppie grocery store, where they sold cheesecloth. I decided to pick some up, which means paneer will be coming soon. Now that I live in Minneapolis, I know I could eventually find a place where I could just buy it, but how cool will it be to say I’ve made my own cheese??

I intend upon doing this over my month-long break, which begins in just a matter of days.

1 litre of milk made a surprisingly small bit of cheese

... it tastes good

... this is what it looks like so far.

And it was delicious! I bought paneer at the store to compare, and they are both about the same when they are in matar paneer. Before cooking them, the store-bought one was silkier and had a little better flavor (maybe from using white vinegar instead of lemon juice?) but after heating in sauce the only real difference was the shape of the chunks (since the store paneer was pressed in a rectangular shape and mine was pressed in a circular shape).

The closest thing to a recipe that I have found is to heat (close to or at boil) whole milk and then add something acidic (such as lemon juice) until it curdles. Since I want to use my paneer for matar paneer, I will try pressing the curds in a double-layer of cheesecloth for a couple of hours and then cure it in a cold water bath.