Growing up in a household where rarely anything was “ready made”, even the “cheese” we ate was homemade.  I didn’t like mainstream cheese until I was in my early teens where a discovered the world of cheese toasted!  In contrast now love cheeses of all variety …perhaps a little too much.  One of the few ingredients I hadn’t replicated was Paneer.  

What you need…

4 pints of milk… Ideally full fat but semi-skimmed is fine. 

Juice of a lemon… Bottled lemon juice is fine. An alternative a is couple of tablespoons of vinegar. 

A large pan.

Muslin… Or any fine cloth for straining. 


What you need to do…

Boil the 4 pints of milk in the pan… Bring it to the boil. 

Add the lemon juice or vinegar, gradually whilst stirring. 

At some point the milk will start splitting… At that point you can stop adding the juice. 

Once separation has completed, using the muslin, strain the paneer. This can be done by twisting the top of the muslin until as much of the liquid as possible is removed. 

  
Now you have 2 options:

  1. Leave to cool and use it where you want a crumbled paneer.
  2. Without un-twisting the muslin paneer parcel, place a heavy weight on top and leave it over night.  This can then be cubed or sliced and it will retain its form. 

What to do next… 

Paneer can be used in a variety of dishes in either of its forms.  Matar paneer in its crumbly form is one of my favourites! Recipes to follow. 

“Enjoy!”