Paneer (A type of Indian Cheese)

I am all about cooking everything from scratch for three reasons. First, the end product is fresh, has no "preservatives", "flavor-enhancers" or  a list of 500 chemicals that sound familiar because you took chemistry in high school. Second, it is usually much cheaper to make it at home. Third and the most important reason, it works like therapy for me. I started this post with talking about cooking from scratch because I am making something that most people buy at a grocery store or at a neighborhood halwai  aka sweetshop. Paneer is a very basic Indian cheese(2 ingredients) which is very similar to ricotta cheese. It is used in a lot of main course dishes as well as desserts(usually store-bought, but again can be made at home).

I always have some paneer in my freezer. I used this batch of paneer to make palak paneer (paneer in a spinach sauce).  I also came up with a creative way to pack the paneer tightly to remove moisture from it, so it can be cut into cubes easily without it being crumbly. I will describe it shortly.

Ingredients and equipment

Whole milk - 1 gallon (better if you can find raw milk but not a big deal)

Lime juice - juice of 2 and 1/2 big limes

Stainer lined with layered cheesecloth (* you could also use a pop sock)

All-purpose flour - 2 tbsp

Method

• Bring the milk to a rapid boil with stirring it every now and then to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom and burn. The entire batch of paneer will taste burnt even if very little milk sticks to the bottom. 
• Once the milk has come to a boil, reduce the heat to the minimum setting and add the lime juice, teaspoon at a time with constant stirring. You will start seeing the milk become thinner and separate into granules of paneer.
• Keep adding lime juice and stirring until you see two separate components- "whey- yellowish-greenish liquid" and big chunks of cheese floating on the top.

• Turn off the stove at his point and let it sit for a few minutes.
• Drain the whey from the paneer using the strainer lined with cheese cloth. The whey so formed it very nutritious and can be saved and used in dough, dals or soups. 

• Run water through the paneer for a minute or so to wash out the lime flavor and let the paneer cool a little so its easier to handle.
• Tie the opposite ends of  the cheesecloth into knots and squeeze out as much water as you can. Be careful as the paneer could still be very hot.
• Hang the paneer with the help of the knots on a kitchen faucet or something similar(be creative) for atleast an hour, upto 3-4 hours to let more water drain.

• Squeeze out some more water at this point.
• Untie the knots and take the Paneer out. Put it in a big bowl and sprinkle 2 tablesppons of all purpose flour (maida) on top and knead well.
• This is where my special $2 innovation comes into play. Take a look at this-

I found these two things at the goodwill next door from me. The steel plate on the left is like a perforated pie plate only that it is steel. The hollow circular round is from a springfoam pan. I found these for a buck each and they just happened to fit perfectly. So this is how I used them

After kneading the paneer well with the flour (helps to prevent it from being crumbly), I pressed it down in the springfoam pan as shown in the picture above. You can just shape it into a square and put it on an inverted plate and put some weight on it- like a pot full of water - separated by a wet paper towel. 

• Put it int the refrigerator overnight.
• Cut it into cubes and use or freeze in a ziplock for later use.
• My paneer popped right out of the mould. My special technique helped me use all the paneer and the holes in the bottom plate help drain more moisture. If you don't have something like that, the edges might be all crumbles, which is fine too. You can just add the crumbles to the gravy/sauce and it will taste as good.