Paneer (curd cheese used as a meat alternative for curries) (V) (serves 4 as part of my paneer curry
Ingredients:
2 litres of full fat milk (do not use Cravendale as it has been filtered and will not yield much curd)
200-250ml of natural yoghurt or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
Here’s what you do:
Step 1 - Bring the milk to the boil in a heavy based saucepan. When it starts to boil, add the yoghurt of lemon juice.
Step 2 - Keeping the milk on the heat, stir it gently and you will notice the curds and whey starting to separate. When there is no more curdling to be done (you will notice that the whey is very watery and had an almost green tinge to it) take the pan off the heat.
Step 3 - Line a large sieve with some muslin and and pour the cheeses onto it. Run some cold water through the cheese.
Step 4 - Wrap the cheese up in the muslin. I do this by knotting diagonally opposite corners gently together so that I can hang the muslin from the tap. This allows most of the excess water to drain off and should take about 10 minutes.
Step 5 - Place the muslin with the cheese on a working surface. I use a baking tray with holes in the bottom so that more water can escape. Place the saucepan on top of the muslin and fill it up so that the weight forms the cheese into a flat and firm block. The saucepan should be left there for at least 30 minutes.
That gives you the basic recipe, but here are some extra tips should you need them:
Option 1 - Paneer freezes really well, but I think that this is best done as part of the sauce. My paneer curry freezes very well.
Kitchen implements required:
Large heavy based saucepan
Muslin
Sieve
wooden spoon
Baking tray with holes in bottom
