Homemade Cream Cheese

Homemade Paneer/Indian Cottage Cheese

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by Deeksha Pathak

Is Cottage Cheese the right English translation for Paneer? We can say both yes and no. Preparing cottage cheese is a long process that also has cream which provides the rich and creamy texture. Compared to Cottage Cheese, paneer preparation is not complex and it is easy to prepare Homemade Paneer. As both paneer and Cottage cheese are prepared by curdling the milk I took the liberty of calling Paneer as Indian Cottage Cheese.

In India, specially in North India, paneer dishes bring smile on dining table. Starting from the breakfast, lunch, evening tea snacks, dinner and even in desserts we can prepare dishes from paneer like Rasgulla and Rasmalai.

Though many brands are available in the market for Paneer, items disappear quickly from shelves courtesy the current lockdown we are going through. So why wait till next delivery time – prepare paneer in your kitchen and cook your favorite paneer dish with homemade fresh paneer!!

Ingredients :

Full fat milk and Vinegar/Lemon juice

For 1 litre milk one tbsp vinegar is required. If you are using lemon juice, add one tbsp water in one tbsp of lemon juice.

Process :

Boil milk in a pan.

When milk is boiled, turn off heat and add vinegar or lemon juice. Milk will curdle immediately.

Spread muslin cloth on a sieve. Pour everything over this muslin cloth and wash this chenna nicely in running water so that no taste of lemon or vinegar remains. Squeeze out all water from chhena.

Now hang this chhena in muslin cloth for one hour so that the rest of the water drains out. If you still find chhena too wet, squeeze water with your hands.

Mash chhena properly. Rub it nicely with your palms so that all the grains of chhena become soft and you can collect it like a dough.

Now shape it in square or round shape and keep it in a strong rimmed steel plate.

Keep this upside down on another flat plate.

Now keep some heavy weight on this and let it settle down for 4-5 hours. I have this water can, so I used it as heavy weight. Heavy weight will help in squeezing out the rest of the water and chenna will firmly settle down.

Remove the weight after 4 hours and Homemade Paneer will be ready. Cut it into cubes and keep it in the freezer in a ziplock bag.

If you are not sure about the firmness of paneer, fry a few pieces. If paneer is not firm, it will scatter else it will remain intact.

Now you don’t have to rush to the shop if your family wants paneer with gravy at the dinning table.

 

Published by

Deeksha Pathak

I like reading, watching movies, listening to music, doing some art and craft, cooking, baking and exploring new ideas. Baking is my new passion!!

52 thoughts on “Homemade Paneer/Indian Cottage Cheese”

    1. Thanks a lot Ribanna 😊
      A lot of patience requires to prepare cheese. Our Grandparents were truly hard working people!
      Though I have adopted a slight short cut for that also through another blogger friend 😉 Might post recipe soon!!

  6. We can’t buy it in shops here anyway, so I have to make it myself. My husband’s favourite is the one with spinach, palak paneer. I had paneer once with saffron in a restaurant, but I never saw it again anywhere. I liked that very much. I don’t remember the name.

    1. Stella, Palak paneer is my favorite also! Saffron paneer has very rich gravy prepared with poppy seeds and cashew along with marinated paneer in milk cream with spices. Try at home, and recreate that wonderful taste once again!!

  9. Hello Deeksha. I used to eat cottage cheese when I was young. I would eat it with pieces of vegetables or pieces of fruits mixed into it. Your article has given me the idea to eat cottage cheese again once in a while. I’m going to buy a container of it the next time I go to the supermarket. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Neil Scheinin

    1. Neil, I believe we all have nostalgic memories of food during our childhood. I am sure you will enjoy once again that good taste with paneer and veggies.
      Have a great week ahead!

  18. It looks great. I think I had paneer in my dish before when I went to an Indian restaurant with friends! Is paneer in most of the curry dishes usually?

    It doesn’t seem too difficult to make in your recipe! It just takes time, but not too hard.

    1. Oscar, most probably there might be paneer in most of the gravy dishes as paneer is a big attraction in restaurants.
      Yes, it is time consuming but while cooking breakfast and lunch we can finish the whole process!!

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