Homemade paneer

Making paneer at home is no rocket science, just needs practice. Once you learn the technique and master it, you will never buy it from outside. It’s super easy to make at home and nothing can beat the taste of homemade paneer. Check out the recipe below along with some tips to get it perfect at home. You can find a short stepwise video here on my Instagram page.

Ingredients:

1 lt milk. I have used cow’s milk, boiled and cream removed. Collected milk for two days.

1.5 to 2 tbsp lemon juice diluted using 1 tbsp of water

Method:

Boil the milk once and turn the flame low. Then add lemon juice, increase the flame, keep stirring till you see the paneer separating from the whey. Once paneer and whey are separated completely (whey will turn little greenish), switch off the gas and immediately pour the paneer along with water in a big soup strainer and keep it like that for an hour or more. Done. Use as and when needed.

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Tips:

You can use only curd to make paneer. Depends on the sourness, you will need 1/4 to 1/2 cup curd approx for 1 lt milk.

You can also use curd whey (dahi ka pani) to make paneer. It works wonderfully. 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup for every 1 lt of milk.

If curd, dahi ka pani or lemon is unavailable, use 1 tbsp of vinegar.

Always keep the strainer ready before making paneer. You need to switch off the gas immediately after whey and paneer is separated. If you will cook further, the paneer will turn chewy and will not set properly.

These days I use only dahi ka pani to make paneer. It works so well.

Don’t use vinegar if you have enough lemon juice to make it. Start with 1 tbsp, if the milk doesn’t curdle, add 1 more tbsp of juice or 1 tsp of vinegar.

Please don’t ask me the reason to dilute lemon juice or vinegar because I really don’t know. I never asked my mother about it, only followed her way of doing it.

Don’t throw away the whey. Use it to make roti or paratha, they turn out just amazing. Whey can be stored in the fridge for a day or two.

I have never used cotton cloth to strain the paneer. This steel soup-strainer works very well for me. Bilkul gol matol paneer banta hai.

For herbed paneer:

Add any seasoning of your choice to the milk when you keep it for boiling. And follow the above steps. You can use super finely chopped coriander leaves, mint leaves, pepper powder, cumin seeds, dried herbs. Herbed paneer will not be as smooth as plain paneer but tastes yum. You can have it just like or sprinkle some chaat masala or just sauté them in little ghee or butter.

Feel free to ask any questions if you have in the comments below.

Please do share a picture if you try this out. You can connect with me on Facebook or Instagram.