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How to make Paneer?

Posted by Nithu on Oct 21, 2011 in Paneer Recipes, Veggie Entrees & Sides | 4 comments

Paneer is a fresh cheese which is popular in India. It is used to make dishes from curries to dessert. It can be made at home easily with just milk and some lime juice or vinegar and gives a rich and creamy taste when added to dishes. It is also called Chhena and is available in stores.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Yield: 1.6 lb (725 gram)

Ingredients:

Whole milk – 1 gallon (3.78 liter)
Fresh lime juice from one big lime (can substitute with 3 tbsp of vinegar)
Warm water – 3 tbsp

Method of Preparation:

Heat milk in a pan.Dilute lime juice or vinegar in water.When milk starts boiling, add the lime juice to milk while constantly stirring.

Milk starts curdling and separating. If not add some more lime juice. When it is fully curdled, remove from heat. Line a colander with a muslin cloth or a clean towel and place it over a container to collect the liquid.

Strain the curdled milk and separate the paneer (cheese). The liquid collected in the container is known as whey water.Gently wash the paneer with ice cold water to get rid off the citric acid taste.

Tie the ends of cloth and squeeze the excess liquid from paneer and hang it for an hour.Paneer is ready.

For making paneer cubes:

After hanging the paneer for an hour, place it in between wooden boards or cutting boards and keep a heavy weight on top of it. Let it stand for a minimum of 3 hours or over night. I use my cast iron pans as weight.
Refrigerate it and cut into cubes.
You can either use fried paneer or fresh paneer for your curries such as Paneer Butter Masala, Palak Paneer and other Paneer recipes.

Uses of Whey: Whey is the left over liquid from cheese preparation. It contains protein and other nutrients. Whey can be used for kneading chapathi dough, can be used in curries and gravies instead of water. Whey can also be used in the preparation of rasgulla for making the sugar syrup.

4 Comments

Sharmilee / October 21, 2011

Helpful post,its really hard to get perfect homemade paneer
Akshaya / March 21, 2012

I have tried doing this many times, but somehow the taste of this paneer is not the same as that I have tasted in restaurants. Plus when I have tried to fry the cubes, they disintegrate and just mix in the oil. There are remnants of the cubes in the end, but they are not this wholistic cubes that is seen everywhere or even in your images. Did you use home-made paneer in all your recipes? If yes, then how are the cubes intact after frying? How do you fry them? Thanks for the brilliant site and the wonderful tips till now.
Nithu / March 22, 2012

Hi Akshaya, I agree sometimes when you make paneer at home, it may become soft and crumbly. To avoid this, place paneer in between two wooden boards or cutting boards and place a heavy weight or a flat bottomed container with water and leave it for about 2 hours. Additional liquid will be drained and paneer becomes a firm. Refrigerate it over night, cut it into cubes and fry it in oil/butter/ghee. You can also freeze it for later use. I have always tried this method and my paneer is firm. Thanks for stopping by.
Ingrid / August 6, 2014

Hi, I tried this but could not get the milk to curdle!! How weird is that?? I made a smaller quantity, of 1 l milk, but I used a lot of lime and in a desperate attempt before giving up I also added vinegar. It did curdle a bit, just the same way old milk does in tea, very tiny specks but no where near those lumps you seem to get. Any ideas where I went wrong?