Homemade Paneer from Skimmed Milk (Cow's)

"Homemade Paneer prepared from Skimmed Milk (Cow's)" ... Paneer/ Indian Cottage Cheese / Channa / Chhena is easily available in stores, specially in Mumbai, so I hardly prepare it at home, as it is cheaper and easier to buy them, unfortunately today milk got slightly curdled, so prepared Paneer out of it .... will either grill it or add it on to some curry ... Yummilicious ….. 

** Paneer / Indian Cottage Cheese / Channa / Chhena is a rich source of milk protein and is very easy to prepare at home. It can be prepared with both full fat milk and skimmed milk too, again you can also use Buffalo Milk or Cow's Milk too. Paneer is available almost in every nook and corner in Mumbai, so I hardly prepare it at home. But at times when I stuck up with lots of leftover milk or if by some fault the milk gets curdled a bit, I prepare the same as food is something not to be wasted, though that is a very rare case in my home. For the last 30 years that I have been cooking there must have hardly been hand countable times when the milk has curdled so to be frank paneer has always been purchased. Again, there is a good store near my home that sells fresh paneer on daily basis and I have always found the reliable. But, yes for those of you who would love to try it out at home it is really easy to prepare the same and you must try it out if need be, also homemade assures you of the best quality and it is always in the best interest of the family.

** There is lot of information out there in the net about paneer, its uses, nutrients, its preparation method etc. So, I do not intend to pen in more here. Also somehow I have yet to plunge into preparing more of paneer dishes, as somehow I have never tried out much dishes with it as I always stuck to my age old curry recipes using paneer. Hence I must admit my knowledge of paneer, cheese etc. is limited, but I am sure to try out more dishes soon. Coming to preparing of paneer, it is simply done with addition of curds/lemon juice or vinegar to hot milk which curdles the milk to give you paneer which can then be used in cooking, I have always followed that method. Well, today to my dismay I found that half a liter of milk pack had somehow sneaked back in my fridge that went unnoticed for 2 days and on boiling got very slightly curdled. So, I just added on some lemon juice and curled it further to prepare paneer. I have added a step by step picture collage of the process of preparing paneer and I think they speak all and I don’t need to explain more of it. 

** Here is the simple method of preparing "Homemade Paneer prepared from Skimmed Milk (Cow's)" …. My Style. 

** Boil one liter of milk, I used only half a liter of milk. When it comes to full boil, remove from fire and add in freshly squeezed juice of ½ to 1 lemon depending upon the quantity of milk used. Mix it vigorously and within a minute it with break out and curdle and the whey (thin water) will get separated. Leave it aside for 5 minutes to get fully settled. 

** Note : Here I have to mention that you can use full fat or skimmed milk. You can also use Buffalo's or Cow’s milk too. I have used skimmed cow’s milk as we use that regularly in my home. 

** Keep a large vessel enough to hold all the drained whey and then place a fine sieve stainless steel strainer on it. Place a white cotton/muslin cloth over it that is large enough to be double folded once the milk has been passed through it. Check out the attached picture collage for reference. 

** Now pour the curdled milk through the cloth, the whey will pass of easily and get collected in the vessel below, while the paneer will stay on the cloth. Allow all the whey to get passed on into the vessel below as possible. Now remove that vessel in which the whey is collected and replace with another vessel. 

** Now pour half a liter of fresh water over the curdled milk/paneer to clean off the lemon flavor in paneer. This will get collected in the newly placed vessel below which can be discarded later. You can pass some more water if need be depending again upon how much lemon juice has been added on to the milk for curdling. This is called washing of paneer and the step it followed to remove extra acidic levels from paneer and also the flavor if any. 

** Now cover the strained paneer on sieve by folding over the cotton cloth tightly over it to make it into a compact bundle. Place a well fitting stainless steel plate on top of it and then place a heavy weight stone over the place. You can also hang the bundle of cloth to drain off excess water, but I do not follow that method as this method gives clean square cuts. Check the picture collage for reference. 

** The weight kept over the plate should be heavy enough to press down the plate properly and enable all excess whey + water content from the paneer to pass off. Again do be carefully and do not also overweight the same lest the sieve gets broken. Keep this aside for about 2 hours and it will be done. Remove the stone and the plate and gently open the cloth and you get a well formed tight lump of paneer ready to be used. 

** "Homemade Paneer prepared from Skimmed Milk (Cow's)" is all fresh and ready to be used in preparation of any dishes of your choice. Cut them into desired size pieces and use or add them in any way you want in preparation of dishes. I am going to simple cut them into small cubes and fry them a bit and prepare a spicy paneer biryani tomorrow as we love it very much. 

** Note: Do not throw away the whey, that is water left out of the paneer while curdling. It is filled with nutrients and is very good for health. Add it on while preparing the dough for roti, parathas etc. you can also add them to thick curds and beat well to get good buttermilk. Again you can add them while preparing upma, soups or pulav. Whey has lots of health benefits so PLEASE DO NOT DISCARD IT but USE it in some form. If still hesitant to use, just use it in place of water for plants. 

** Note : If you are lucky to have backyard / garden facility in your home and have curry leaves/ kadipatta/ Karbev plant, use the excess whey as water to the plant. My mom always collected the water in which she cleaned the freshly prepared butter and put it to the curry leaves plant. She always endorses that the plant grows well and gives good aromatic curry leaves. Well I have no such luck as living in Mumbai and also having no access to sunlight it is not possible to do so, if you have that opportunity please try it out. 

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