Paneer or Indian Cottage Cheese (How To Make At Home)

Paneer is a type of Indian cheese,it is popular as cottage cheese.It is a good source of protein.It is used in making of many Indian dishes specially North Indian dishes.
It is easily available in stores,but sometimes,if you can not get it at your supermarket then you can make it at home .It is very easy to make. As it is homemade so it is more hygienic,healthy and soft compared to the store bought paneer.

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Author - Moumita 
Preparation Time - 5 Minutes 
Cooking Time - 10 Minutes-----------------------------------------
Ingredients 
Milk- 2 litres
Yogurt or Curd-1/4 cup

(Instead of using yogurt or curd or dahi you can use 2 tablespoons of lemon juuce or vinegar,but I personally prefer curd or yogurt for making paneer as it keeps paneer soft )

Materials Required 
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Muslin cloth or thin cotton cloth or a cotton big hankerchief-1

Flat strainer-1 (speally made in steel)

Heavy weight or mortar pestle

Method 

Take a heavy bottomed vessel, add milk.

Bring it to  boil and keep stirring to avoid burning of milk.

Once the milk comes to boil, simmer the gas, start adding yogurt or curd and keep stirring( if required,add more yogurt or curd ) cook for few seconds until the milk solids gets separates from the water.This water is called whey water,it also good for health,you can use it for making any curry or kneading your roti dough.Switch off the heat.

Pour this curdled milk to the already lined muslin cloth or thin cotton cloth over a strainer,squeeze out all the whey water then  rinse paneer or cottage cheese under the tap water  as much as possible. 

Now hang the cloth covered  paneer with  tap for 30 minutes. Then remove it from tap and place cloth covered paneer on a flat stariner.

Place a plate on the paneer then put a heavy weight on this plate  for another 1 hour. It will help to squeeze  more water from paneer and your paneer will not be broken into pieces while cooking .

After 1 hour,remove the cloth from paneer and plate the paneer on a clean chopping board .Cut the paneer into cubes and use it. You can store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator, if you are not going to use it immediately.

Want to know more Paner recipes,please click Here

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