Yes! You can make fresh Paneer at home! While it may seem that making Paneer at home is hard – in reality it is quite easy. If you follow the instructions you should be able to get it right the first time around. You can make it with reduced fat milk or whole milk – it’s your choice. Restaurant paneer is usually made with whole milk to give the full rich taste. I’ve never tried making it with skim milk – if you do try that out, do leave a comment and let me know how it turned out.
Ingredients
1/2 Gallon 2% Reduced Fat Milk
1/4 cup White Vinegar or Lemon Juice
1/2 gallon of milk produces about 10 oz of Paneer.
You will also need a cheesecloth.
Preparation
Step 1
Heat the milk in a thick-bottomed pot on medium-high heat and until it starts to boil. Depending on your pot and the heat level of your stove this will take around 10-15 minutes. Keep an eye on the pot so it doesn’t boil over.
Step 2
When the milk comes to a boil, take it off the heat and add the White Vinegar/Lemon Juice. You’ll notice that it starts to curdle immediately. Let it stand for about 10 minutes so that the milk curds separate out completely from the whey.
Step 3
You now need to strain out the milk curds from the whey. To do this place a colander lined with a cheese cloth inside a large pot.
Step 4
Pour the curdled milk into the cheese cloth and completely drain the whey. You’ll need to stir the curdled milk to speed up the whey draining out.
When the whey has been most drained, to remove some more of the remaining whey, pick up the cheese cloth and tie a knot at the open end and squeeze it.
Step 5
The next step is to completely squeeze out remaining whey from the Paneer and to set it. Place the cheese cloth bundle on a large plate with the knot on one side so that when the Paneer sets you get a nice block.
You need to place a heavy weight on top of the bundle. To do this you can place another plate on top of the bundle with a heavy weight such as a can of tomatoes or a gallon bottle of water. I use a marble rolling board since it’s convenient.
Let it stand for at least 45 minutes and the Paneer will be ready.
Try some of our Paneer recipes, the links are below.
Enjoy!
Related Recipes
Peas and Paneer Curry
Paneer Bhurjee
Saag Paneer
This weekend I tried a paneer recipe! To start with preparing paneer, I tried putting buttermilk in the milk and it worked well. And then I followed all the steps above. I remember my mother prepared paneer by putting yogurt in the milk.
That’s a great tip! The key is that we need acid to curdle the milk, and yogurt would also be a curdling agent that will not give the Paneer a foreign taste like excessive vinegar or lemon juice might do. Thanks!