Curry Monday - Paneer

A few months back I tasted paneer in a curry for the first time and enjoyed it. Paneer is a non-melting, unaged cheese that is made by curdling hot milk with an acid (usually lemon juice). It has a mild flavour and like tofu has the ability to take on other flavours. For all you fellow science geeks out there, this is also the same process in which you make milk plastic

I used the curry base from Cashew Chicken, but replaced the chicken with paneer and chicken stock with water. It worked really well. Next time I will use Hubby's cheese press so it won't end up as thin, which in turn should mean it won't break up as easily during cooking. Interestingly different different parts of India have thier own paneer methods.

This Thursday I've been given the job of teaching some of the Junior kids all about Indian food. With only 2 hours and a microwave to hand I'm thinking of taking my range of spices in so the kids can smell them and we may make something like chutney or riata.

Paneer
Makes around 150g

1 litre of whole milk
2 tbsp lemon juice

1) Heat milk in a large saucepan until it is boiling. Add lemon juice and keep stirring. Eventually the milk will begin to curdle leaving you with curds (the solid) and whey (the liquid).

2) Sieve contents of saucepan through a fine sieve or muslin.

3) Turn out curds onto clean chopping board. Sandwich with another clean heavy chopping board and leave to set for 1 hour.

Print this post