Paneer
Makes 340g
Preparation time: 20 minutes Draining/Weighing Down Time: 50 minutes
Suitable for: Vegetarians and those on a Gluten-Free diet
Use to make such dishes as Saag Paneer, Mutter Paneer, Ras Malai, Paneer Pakoras, Chutney ‘Sandwich’ Paneer Pakoras, Ras Malai
NB: Paneer cubes for the curries and paneer pakoras should be roughly 15 - 20mm thick (height) but they should be about 30mm thick for the sandwich pakoras to allow for slicing in half horizontally to form the sandwich.
Ingredients:
2 litres of whole milk (I use organic whole milk)
3½ tablespoons of lemon juice (1 lemon) OR ½ teaspoon of citric acid
Method:
Rinse a heavy based saucepan with water to prevent the milk solids from sticking to the bottom
Pour the milk into the pan and bring to the boil on fairly high heat
Turn off the heat the as soon as the milk begins to reach boiling point otherwise it will boil over.
Add the lemon juice and stir continuously until the curd separates from the whey
Turn the heat back on onto a slow/medium setting and allow to come just up to boiling point.
Turn off heat and drain the contents through a metal sieve over a large bowl - the whey can be used for making cakes, biscuits or discarded
Rinse the curd with cold water.
Leave the curd in the sieve over the bowl for 20 minutes to drain off any excess whey/water.
Transfer the drained curd into a bowl and knead for a couple of minutes until it forms a thick cream like texture
Spread a piece of linen over a dry clean chopping board. Form a soft rough ball with the kneaded curd.
Place in the centre of the linen, flatten to about 15cm in diameter.
Wrap the linen around this flattened curd.
Place the linen wrapped curd in the centre of a clean absorbent tea towel and wrap the tea towel around the linen containing the curd.
Place a heavy weight over the wrapped curd - these could be tins of pulses, tins of tomatoes in a flat bottomed pan.
Leave to let the excess whey drain out of the curd for half an hour.
Unwrap the paneer and use as desired.