Paneer is an Indian fermented milk product prepared with or without spices. Such curd cheese is used in recipes for baked goods, desserts and second hot dishes. How to make paneer cheese at home? What ingredients are used for this? Recommendations for cooking homemade cheese, recipes based on it, you will find in this article.

Paneer cheese is easy to make at home

Ingredients

Milk 3 liters

• Servings: 1
• Cooking time: 2 minutes

Basic paneer cheese recipe

A fermented milk product is prepared from fresh village or purchased milk, the fat content of which must be at least 3.5%. Sour cream, kefir, natural yogurt, acetic (9%) and malic acid, as well as lemon juice are used for the starter culture.

Ingredients:

• milk - 3 l.;
• lemon juice - 100 ml;
• salt - 1.5 tsp.

Pour milk into a deep saucepan with a thick bottom and put on fire. When it starts to boil, you need to gradually pour in the lemon juice and remove the pan from the heat, stirring the mixture constantly. Cover the bottom of the colander with gauze folded in 2-3 layers, put the curdled mass inside, drain the remaining whey.

Stir the cottage cheese with a spoon and wait for excess liquid to drain from it. Wrap cheesecloth with future cheese in a knot, place in a saucepan, set the load on top. Put the workpiece in a cold place for 2-3 hours.

Ready cheese is stored for no more than 3 days in the refrigerator and no more than a month in the freezer.

Spiced paneer cheese

With the addition of spices, herbs and dried (fresh) vegetables, homemade cheese acquires a bright taste, color and aroma. The ingredients in the recipe can be modified to suit your own preferences.

To make spiced paneer you will need:

• cow's milk - 2.5 l.;
• lemon - 1 pc.;
• ground paprika - 1 tsp;
• dried dill - 1 tsp;
• dried parsley - 1 tsp;
• pieces of dried tomato - 1 tsp;
• salt;
• basil - 1 tsp

Put the milk in a saucepan on the fire and bring to a boil, squeeze the juice from the lemon, gradually pour it into the milk removed from the heat. Pour the resulting curd mass into a colander lined with gauze. Stir the future cottage cheese with a spoon, drain all the liquid.

Add spices and salt (to taste) to the mass, mix thoroughly. Fold the gauze and tie it in a knot, place a jar of water (3 liters) on top, put the workpiece in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours. Ready cheese can be used both in pure form and added to salads, hot dishes.

Dishes with paneer cheese

Homemade cheese is versatile, used in the preparation of hot dishes, desserts and cold snacks. Delicious and easy to prepare paneer dishes:

• kadai paneer;
• fried cheese in Indian style.

Kadai paneer is a hot stew with spices and vegetables. Due to its light pungency, it helps to keep warm on cold autumn and winter evenings.

To prepare kadai paneer you will need:

• bell pepper - 1 pc.;
• fresh tomatoes - 3 pcs.;
• ginger - 50 gr.;
• sour cream - 200 gr.;
• tomato paste - 1.5 tsp;
• curry - 2 tsp;
• paprika - 2 tsp;
• turmeric - 1 tsp;
• cumin - 1 tsp;
• half a chili pepper;
• sugar - ½ tbsp. l .;
• garlic - 4 cloves;
• coriander - 1.5 tbsp l .;
• salt - a pinch;
• turnip onions - 1 pc.;
• paneer cheese - 400 gr.

Heat oil in a frying pan, add coriander, chili, grated garlic and ginger, spices. Then chop bell peppers and tomatoes, onion into half rings, put in a pan and fry.

Add diced paneer to the vegetables, pour over tomato paste diluted in a glass of water, add salt and sugar. Simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes. Put sour cream in the finished dish and serve with flat cakes or thin pita bread.

Indian fried cheese is quick to prepare, with the available ingredients in the recipe.

Grocery list:

• paneer - 300 gr.;
• curry - 2 tbsp. l .;
• zira - 2 tbsp. l .;
• paprika - 2 tbsp. l .;
• basil - 2 tbsp l.

Cut the cheese into 1–2 cm thick plates, roll in aromatic spices. Pour olive oil into a frying pan and heat, then fry the cheese until golden brown. Serve with fresh vegetable salad.

Paneer, made at home from natural fresh milk, is superior in taste to purchased curd cheese. Delight your guests and family members with aromatic paneer dishes.

What is paneer? What is hidden behind this exotic and unusual name for our ears? It turned out to be nothing special. This dish belongs to Indian cuisine and is a homemade cheese made from fresh milk. We do something similar when we cook cottage cheese, the only difference is that fresh milk is taken for paneer, and the mass obtained during fermentation is pressed.

In India, paneer is used as an independent dish, sweets are also made from it, added to salads, vegetable dishes and even fried in butter. Skim milk is not suitable for Indian cheese, you need to take fatty milk: the fatter, the better. I have rural milk, if you look closely at the photo, you can see that almost half of the can is sludge - cream. Lemon is taken for fermentation, it can be replaced with kefir or yogurt.

Pour milk into a saucepan and put on fire.

In the meantime, the milk is warming up, squeeze the juice out of the lemon. You don't have to do this through a juicer. We only need a few spoons, this amount can be squeezed out by hand.

Add lemon juice to milk and continue heating. The mass will begin to stratify - curl up.

Upon further heating, the whey will acquire a greenish-yellowish color, and the pieces of cheese will become denser. You do not need to boil milk. At this stage, the heating is stopped. Let the mass cool down a little.

Roll the gauze into two layers and put in a colander.

Pour the cheese mass onto cheesecloth. The whey will run down and the cheese will remain in the cheesecloth.

Tighten the gauze and squeeze out the liquid. Paneer is ready. For some dishes you need exactly this kind of cheese - a soft consistency.

Well, we will continue to prepare the pressed Indian paneer. We tie the ends of the gauze together, manually drain some of the liquid, and eliminate the rest during the pressing process.

We put a plate or a plate on cheese in gauze, on it - some kind of load, for example, a jar of water. Excess liquid will drain.

In two hours we will have something like this Indian paneer.

We have prepared such a wonderful dish from a minimum of ingredients.

We now know how to make paneer at home. I think that many will like such a healthy dish.

Prepare foods for making paneer. Squeeze juice from half a lemon.

Pour milk into a thick-walled saucepan, put on fire.

Bring the milk to a boil (do not boil!) And pour in the lemon juice, stirring the milk continuously. After about 2-3 minutes, the curd flakes will begin to separate from the whey.

Pour the milk mass into a colander covered with clean gauze folded in 2 layers. Tie gauze and hang for 30 minutes to glass the serum. After the lapse of time, you can enjoy the soft, tender homemade cheese. In order for the paneer to become denser, after 30 minutes, you need to put it in a colander right in the gauze, cover with a plate and put the load on top. Place a saucepan or plate under the colander to drain the excess whey.

Paneer is ready, you can enjoy its wonderful taste.

Home-made paneer makes a delicious snack, infused with the aromas of Indian spices. Pour olive oil into a preheated frying pan, add spices (dried ginger, turmeric, black pepper, cumin), after 20 seconds add diced cheese and fry on all sides. Put the fried cheese on a plate with a spatula and enjoy a delicious snack.

Paneer cheese is a type of cheese native to India. Since not everyone in this densely populated state had the opportunity to purchase meat, and among the inhabitants there is a large percentage of vegetarians for religious beliefs, homemade cheese has become a suitable substitute for meat products for them. It is nutritious, has many beneficial properties, thanks to which it gained popularity all over the world. Why is paneer so highly valued and consumed by gourmets from all over the world?

Cooking paneer

Wherever available, there are a large number of homemade cheese recipes. Indian paneer takes a special place among them due to the simplicity of the ingredients used and the preparation process itself. Milk and curdling component (,) - products from which cheese is prepared. If desired, add various herbs or spices to make the flavor more unique. Milk is used homemade or store-bought pasteurized, with a high percentage of fat. It is boiled, after which the resulting curd mass is separated from the whey, excess moisture is removed from it and placed under a press. The resulting product has a sweetish-sour curd taste, it is dense in consistency, does not lose its shape and does not melt during heat treatment.

Use of the product in cooking

As an independent dish, cheese is served in the form of snacks or desserts, as well as with savory or sweet sauces. Cheese is fried in deep fat or batter, vegetables or fruits are added to it. Alternatively, paneer can be boiled and baked. The product acts as an ingredient in salads, soups, side dishes, while it goes well with berries, fruits, seafood, herbs, meat, fish.

Flavoring properties of cheese

During the cooking process, various components are added to paneer, for example, cumin, coriander, ground nuts, and all this gives an unusual palette of tastes and a variety of types of product. Using kefir or lemon juice () in the manufacture will give the cheese a sour taste, and yogurt - more creamy and sweetish.

The benefits and harms of the product

Cheese contains vitamins, minerals, useful for the body. have a beneficial effect on the nervous system and are beneficial for muscle tissue. and - a storehouse of beauty for hair, teeth and nails, and is necessary for the normal functioning of the cardiovascular system. Paneer cheese helps to normalize blood pressure, remove toxins from the body.

As in everything else, the use of dairy products has its own pitfalls. For people who suffer from intolerances, it is better to refuse cheese. In addition, this product cannot be called dietary - it is high in calories and contains a significant amount, so its consumption should be limited if there is a problem of excess weight. As for milk and dairy products in general, it is known that milk can contain antibiotics, hormones and some other synthetic substances that harm the human body. Therefore, it is better to consume paneer cheese in minimal quantities, for example, one or two slices a day.

Popular paneer recipes

Despite some exoticism of Indian cuisine, recipes using paneer interest and attract even gourmets who are far from it. Among them:

• paneer with curry;
• shahi paneer (cheese along with vegetables and creamy sauce is served with a side dish);
• vegetable salads with paneer;
• subji;
• fried paneer.

Preparing the latter is very simple: you need cheese, a mixture of spices and vegetables (fruits) to taste. The cheese is cut into thick bars or slices, rolled in spices such as a mixture of garam masala, curry and cumin. A thick-walled skillet is heated with vegetable oil. Cheese is laid in it and fried on both sides until crisp. You can continue using it with vegetables, fruits or jams - a matter of taste.

Storage features

Paneer is a perishable food and can be stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 days, and if you put it in salted food, it can be stored for a week. Chopped into slices and frozen, paneer has a shelf life of up to two weeks.

Paneer is a nutritious, tasty and easy-to-make variety of homemade cheese. You can buy it at a specialty store or prepare it yourself to appreciate the taste and benefits.

Friends, paneer is a traditional homemade cheese It is easy to find in stores, but the quality of the product cannot be sure. Therefore, it is worth learning how to prepare a fresh and natural homemade product. This is paneer cheese, it is very easy to cook it at home, it reaches the desired hardness in just two hours. Therefore, I advise everyone to cook a tasty and healthy cold appetizer on their own to be sure of its composition.
You can use a home-made product for any dish, because homemade paneer cheese is universal. It can be used not only in salads or as a filling on, but also added to hot dishes. Since when heated, it does not melt and does not lose its shape, and when fried, a ruddy crust forms.

You can diversify paneer by adding any spices, herbs and spices to your taste and preference. For example, chopped greens, crushed nuts, pieces of sweet and hot peppers, etc. Today we are going to cook homemade paneer cheese according to the simplest recipe, using only two ingredients. But before proceeding with the recipe itself, let's take a look at what products you can use to make paneer cheese at home and how much you can get at the exit.

What can you make paneer cheese from at home?

Homemade paneer cheese is obtained from curdled milk, followed by fermentation of the pressed mass. An enzyme is used for curdling in industrial production. For example, natural or microbiological (non-natural) abomasum. At home, any other acidic product is most often used:

• kefir,
• lemon,
• yogurt,
• lemon acid,
• table vinegar 9%,
• serum.

It will not be superfluous to know the properties of the most commonly used coagulants in order to understand which of the acidic foods is best for making paneer cheese at home.
Lemon juice. Freshly squeezed lemon juice gives the cheese a sour light taste. In order to roll up 0.5 liters of milk, you need about 1 tbsp. l. juice.
Lemon acid. Excessive citric acid crystals will make the cheese grainy, making it difficult to form. To roll up 0.5 liters of milk, you need 1/2 tsp. product.
Yogurt. Yogurt produces a soft and thick paneer. For 0.5 liters of milk, 4-5 tablespoons are required.
Serum. The serum remaining from the curdled milk must be kept warm for several days. It gives the product a slightly sour taste. To roll up half a liter of milk, take 150 ml of whey.

How much homemade paneer cheese can you get from milk?

Whichever acidifier you have chosen for curdling milk, you still need to know how much milk to take in order to get the right amount of homemade cheese. The yield of the obtained pressed cheese from a certain amount of milk is as follows:

• From 0.5 liters of milk, we get 75 g of paneer at the output;
• From 1.5 liters of milk - 200 g of homemade cheese;
• From 3 liters of milk - 350 g of paneer cheese.

How to make paneer cheese at home, recipe with photo

Ingredients

Milk - 1 l
Citric acid - 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Preparation

1. Pour the milk into a saucepan, put it on the stove, turn on the fire and boil.

2. As soon as the first bubbles appear, the milk begins to boil and rise, add salt and citric acid (or another acidic product of your choice) to the pan.

3. We will continue to heat the milk for 3-5 minutes. Before our eyes, it will begin to curl and acquire a yellow-green color, forming detachable curds of curd.

4. Prepare a piece of gauze folded in half, which is placed in a sieve installed on a container for draining the whey. Use a slotted spoon to remove the curdled curd from the pan and place it in cheesecloth.

5. Gather the ends of the gauze, twist it and squeeze it well, ridding the product of excess serum. The remaining whey can be used for cooking (, okroshka) or for making the next batch of cheese.

6. Roll the cottage cheese compactly, giving it a neat shape and place in a sieve.

7. On top of the product we will install any weighting agent, for example, a glass jar or a plastic bottle with water.

8. Leave the cheese to press for 2 hours. Moreover, the longer the paneer will be under oppression, the harder it will turn out. After that, carefully unfold it and send it to cool in the refrigerator.

9. Cut the finished paneer cheese into slices and use as directed. For example, you can grate it or cut it into squares, add it to a salad, make a cheese sandwich with it, or just make a delicious and nutritious sandwich, just like with a melted homemade one.

Bon Appetit!

I suggest watching a video on the benefits of paneer cheese.

And the second video from the slides of the step-by-step shooting of a homemade snack.

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Best regards, Lyubov Fedorova.