Home-made cheese paneer: recipe

Some prefer to cook sausages, pates and other products with their own hands. It turns out often much tastier than the store options. This article will talk about how to make cheese paneer at home. He is preparing On the principle of Adyghe and can be used in many dishes.

General characteristics

Indian cheese panier - one of the most famous and popular. It is made from home cottage cheese, pressed to a dense mass. Classic paneer should have a fresh taste. Cheese can be served to the table as a cold snack, used in salads, soups or desserts.

Advantages of homemade cheese

Home-made cheese paneer is made easily and quickly. For the preparation of rustic milk (or with a high fat content, closer to the present) and an acidic product, which can be in the form of:

• Yoghurt;
• Lemon juice;
• Kefir;
• Sour cream.

The panier does not melt during heat treatment and does not lose shape. Cheese refers to a variety of dense, so when cutting it does not crumble. Pannir made at home is much better and cheaper than the store.

Cheese paneer from milk and citric acid

Most often the panier is preferred to cook at home with citric acid. It can be replaced with lemon juice, which will require more. In this recipe, the minimum amount of lime is indicated. If you want, you can add more. For home cheese will require:

• 1 liter of milk;
• 1 tsp. Citric acid;
• 0.5 tsp. Salt.

Milk is best to take home. If you use a store, it is desirable with a short shelf life. Super-pasteurized will not work. Milk is poured into a large saucepan and brought to almost a boil. Then citric acid is poured into it. Everything is thoroughly mixed.

As soon as the foam starts to rise, the pan is removed from the fire. Either it decreases to a minimum, and the milk warms up for another 3 minutes. All this time the mixture must be mixed. It will be clearly seen how the milk is divided into curds and whey.

Take a strainer or colander and cover with a thick layer of gauze. The contents of the pan are poured into it. After the moisture drains, the gauze is twisted by the knot. The maximum liquid is squeezed out. Take any form (bank, deep bowl, etc.) and form the appearance of cheese.

Then gauze with it is put back in a colander or sieve. A press is placed on top of the cheese mass. You can use an ordinary three-liter jar filled with water. Cottage cheese is aged under the press for at least 60 minutes. Then the cheese is extracted and rinsed with running water to smooth the surface of the product.

Paneer of milk and yogurt

At home, you can often prepare quality products. One of the favorite delicacies is cheese panier. The recipe for cooking on kefir will require such ingredients:

• 1 liter of milk with maximum fat content;
• 150 ml of yogurt.

The milk is poured into the pan and placed on the fire until it boils. Then kefir pours in a thin stream. At the same time, the mass is constantly mixed. After a couple of minutes, the process of separating the whey from the cottage cheese will begin. After that, dense pieces will float to the surface.

Marley in a few layers lined with a colander. The contents of the pan are poured onto the fabric. It is necessary to wait until the serum completely drains. Then the gauze is tightly tightened and placed in a deep bowl. The press presses it from above. It can be any large capacity filled with water.

Prepared with spices panir (cheese)

The recipe for cooking with spices differs little from the classical version. For the dish you will need:

• 2 liters of milk (with the most fat content);
• Juice, squeezed out of the lemon halves;
• 30 g of dried spices (tomato, paprika, dill, etc.);
• Salt to taste.

Milk is poured into a large saucepan and heated, but not boiled. The liquid is constantly stirred. Then the burner switches off and juice from half a large lemon survives in the heated milk. It will be better if it is done in advance and the juice is filtered through a strainer or gauze.

While the lemon liquid slowly pours in, it is necessary to stir constantly for five minutes. Immediately you will see how the milk begins to curl up. After that, it will be divided into whey and cottage cheese. The bottom of the colander is lined with gauze. The contents of the pot are poured out and left for a while until the excess whey drains.

If the mass is constantly stirred, the process will go much faster. During it, salt and dried spices are added. After all the ingredients have been thoroughly mixed, the gauze is strongly twisted into a knot. The latter is pressed with oppression. It takes two hours to form the cheese. It is better if the product is under the yoke to be in the cold.

Fried panier

The preparation of cheese panier, as it turned out, is a simple matter. But the right to fry the finished product can not all. Paneer does not melt at all from heat and therefore does not lose its shape. But properly roasted cheese acquires an unusual, unique taste.

Again, a lot depends on the consistency of the product. Hard panier fry easily. It is cut into small slices, crumbles in spices and fried in a frying pan with vegetable oil. Soft cheese is prepared somewhat differently. For roast panier you will need:

• 200 g of cheese (soft);
• 1 tsp. Creamy melted butter;
• 0.5 tbsp. L. Cumin;
• A pinch of black ground pepper;
• A quarter teaspoon of turmeric;
• 1 tbsp. L. Sour cream;
• 0.5 bunch of parsley;
• A quarter teaspoon of salt.

Ghee butter (if it is not available) can be replaced with the usual olive oil. On it, on a large fire, fried cumin. In doing so, it must be constantly mixed. Cumin is fried until it becomes golden brown. It is then that the seasoning gives the oil its full flavor.

Pans are added to the pan, then they are sprinkled with turmeric and salt. All is fried for a few minutes. It is constantly mixed. Then the dish is removed from the fire, pepper and sour cream are added. Everything is mixed and sprinkled with chopped herbs.

How much do you need for citric acid cheese?

The amount of citric acid that is used to make a panier is directly dependent on the quality of the milk. In the shops it is sold a lot of kinds. Many have added special ingredients that do not allow the milk to quickly fold. Therefore, you may need more than one teaspoon of citric acid. But even in this case, the milk still turns whitish instead of yellow.

Features of cheese making

After the coagulant has been added to the milk, it is impossible to keep the product on the fire for a long time. Otherwise the cheese panier will become very hard. If you want to get a crumbly cheese, then during the preparation seasoning turmeric is added. The remaining whey is a secondary product that can be used to make other dishes (pancakes, okroshki, etc.).

If, despite the large amount of coagulant added to the milk, the expected hard solid layer is not formed, the product is removed from the fire and left to "rest" for several hours. During this period, the solid particles will rise above the serum and the curd will appear.

Citric acid, by means of which the cheese paneer is usually made, is easily replaced with other components. For example, on fermented whey. It will take 150 ml to fold 600 ml of milk. The second option is yogurt. With its use, the leaven turns thick and very tasty. To curdle 600 ml of milk, you need 5 tablespoons of yogurt.

But the simplest version is squeezed lemon juice. It imparts a sour taste. It will need at least 5 tablespoons per 2 liters of milk. After the cheese is ready, it can be served to the table as a separately cut into pieces dish (with or without sauce), or overcooked with spices.

The higher the fat content in milk, the finer the product will taste better. If there is no gauze, it is replaced by a clean white cotton fabric (without print and paint). Salt or granulated sugar can be added earlier than the start of milk curdling.

There are special appliances and containers for cheese making. If the milk does not curdle, then you can try to boil it. In this case, constant stirring is necessary. For paneira stale or sour milk is not suitable. It is also problematic to make cheese from fat-free.

How to achieve the desired density of cheese?

Cheese paneer can be made firm or not. There are two different methods for this. In order to make cheese dense, you need to tie gauze, which is the product, and press it down with a press.

Paneer should lie until all the serum has drained off. The longer he then lies, the denser it becomes. For a soft consistency, the paneer is placed in gauze. She tightens up and leaves in a colander until all the moisture drains and the cheese becomes solid.