Thursday 11 June 2009

Homemade Paneer Cubes



I was wondering in one of my last posts at how few of my recipes actually make it to my blog.
One of the main reasons is I cook most of the good stuff for dinner ... and absolutely hate to click snaps in bad light. So inspite of cooking up loads of food, my blog lacks most of them.


So when dear Joyeeta lamented that her homemade paneer always breaks down before a dish is complete, I remembered that I do make paneer at home. And also realised that I have never posted it.


So here's the paneer ... made by me. And it doesn't break ... see? Hope this recipe helps Joyeeta and anyone who wants make paneer at home.


I have never liked store bought paneer and guess that's what prompted me to try making it. It is surprisingly easy to make .... and has a firm yet soft texture. Has always worked well for my dishes.



I am giving the measurements and snaps for a detailed description. Since I was making it only for this post, I have used less milk. If you want to, you can increase the measurements accordingly.

The sun chose to play hide and seek today .... wreaking havoc on my snaps. :-(


Need : Half litre milk, juice of half a lemon / 2 teaspoons of white vinegar, 1 teaspoon cornflour, a little cooking oil.

How to :

Bring the milk to a boil and then add the lemon juice / vinegar. After it curdles, keep boiling for 2 to 3 minutes more.


Drain it in a soup strainer. Tie it up in a cheese cloth and hang it to drain out all water.

Or .... just keep a bowl filled with water ( to make it heavy enough) on the paneer in the soup strainer .... for about half an hour.


Remove after half an hour and mash it well with cornflour till smooth.


Pat it on a plate ( preferrably steel ) and give a thick, squarish shape.
Place it in the freezer to set ... for about half an hour.
Make sure it does not start to freeze ... the water in it will go bonkers once you start to fry it ... the whole thing will fall apart. :-)

Bring out the set paneer and cut it into cubes.

Spray a little oil on a very lightly heated pan / griddle. Place the paneer cubes on it for a while ... turn them over once ... and remove.
Don't brown them too much ... this is just for the paneer to hold together.


Done ! Your gloriously golden and creamy paneer is ready! :-)

Add them to any dish you want to. Just remember .... store bought or otherwise .... good paneer is delicate. So don't go about stirring and tossing and bullying it into oblivion.

Always add paneer at the end while making a dish with it. Just add it, give a stir if necessary ... cover and simmer. That's all.


I made this out of the paneer I made ... recipe coming up in the next post. :-)






34 comments:

  1. Thanks for the post.
    Surely I will try this .

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  2. wow, thats grt..hommade paneer looks superb..waiting 4 that colorful recipe with paneer:)

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  3. Looks so good...
    Yumm and simple...
    lovely pix...

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  4. Bak ki perfect paneer hoyeche, cornflour ta jantam na to

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  5. I never tried the cornflour (but then I usually put homemade paneer in bhurji or paranthas). Will try it next time I am looking for firm slices

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  6. I make paneer at home too but I do not add corn flour...any reasons??? Does it help in making it firmer?
    Curry looks delicious.

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  7. this is awesome babe..will try it riteaway and let u know how it comes out!!

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  8. I am totally impressed... :)
    This is absolutely amazing, you know I have never added cornflour OR put it in a freezer. And there goes the trick for setting it well...

    A million thanks to you Sharmila and you should not let go of the wonderful recipes you cook up for dinner...day light or no light, we want them on your blog :)

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  9. Wow.. that looks lovely! I too posted a similar recipe yesterday!

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  10. really nice post, homemade paneer tastes amazing..

    vaidehi

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  11. Perfect looking paneer. Never tried making paneer at home. Sounds simple enough, will try. Lovely pictorial.

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  12. Perfect! looking forward to the gravy recipe.

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  13. Thanks Abhi, Chitra, Sheetal, Somoo, Sandeepa, Simran, Vanamala, Cilantro, Rush, Joyeeta, AnuSriram, Vaidehi, Pavani, Bharti! :-)

    Simran, Cilantro ... homemade fresh paneer is too soft ... the cornflour helps to hold it together so the cubes do not break or disintegrate in a dish. :-)

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  14. Sharmila, cornflour konodin add korini paneer korte..thanks for the tips. recently i did start making my own paneer again, instead of buying, & it takes hell lot of a long time to drain it & get it really tight, for it not to break. will have to give this a shot. Thanks!

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  15. some of your pictures are really lovely. All the efforts paid off. I remember that one of the things they tought us in International School in 4th Standard was Cottage cheese. I think we were doing a project on Netherlands. They had quite a creative approach to studying.

    I live in an area where there are lot of Sindhis and you get some lovely fresh paneer

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  16. I don't think I've seen a better looking Home-made Paneer than this one..honest!!

    I usually use store-bought paneer for cooking and use home-made only if it requires to be crumbled.Reason being,my paneer is never firm.Thanks so much for the idea of blending it with cornflour to get a firm texture.I'll surely try it out.

    And yeah,I promise I won't *bully* the paneer;)

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  17. I usually buy paneer from the store,but I would like to try out this recipe.I liked the tips.Thanx for sharing.

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  18. thats awesome sharmila..another new way..I never add cornflour..i shall try this method too...:)

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  19. Home-made paneer is always the best. No two ways about that!
    As for not posting most of what I cook, Its not even the bad light but the fact that there's not time gap between cooking and then eating the dinner!! :)

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  20. Sharmila,
    that's really grest and thanks for the tip there..paneer looks so firm there :)..
    onek din kicho post kori ni tai aar abaar iche korche na kicho korte ..ek rokomer break hi hoye geche...kinto will try to come to visit you as much possible ..
    hugs and smiles

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  21. It looked delicious!I enjoyed my visit to your blog!Keep up the great work!

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  22. Thanks all for liking my paneer and the nice words! :-)

    Aparna ... very true. :-)

    Jaya ... tomar ghoroa rannar jone ami cheye boshe thaki. Tobe break o majhe majhe bhalo. Enjoy! :-)

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  23. adding corn flour to paneer is very new!
    join in the fem breakfast series going in my blog!

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  24. Oh wow pictorial is helpful....thanks for sharing....

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  25. Oh wow the paneer looks very soft and you made it like a pro!!!

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  26. Wow Sharmila! This is such a jiffy! Hope I get the courage to try it! If it comes out right, it will be such a money-saver and freezer-space saver!! How have you been? I have been away for sometime on personal work. Managed to keep in touch with some of the blogger friends through facebook. Are you in facebook or orkut by any chance?

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  27. Thanks for the post. I tried homemade paneer for the first time succesfully. But I have a question. The paneer came out very soft and perfect after I fried it lightly. But I didnt make the palak paneer immediately. When I cooked the dish a few hours later and added the fried paneer towards the end, it became very hard and lost all the softness. Would you know why it happened that way?

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  28. Thanks Srilekha, KF, Ramya, Pragyan! :-)

    Thanks for caring to let me know Madhu! :-)
    The paneer will turn hard if the quantity of the cornflour is too much ... you won't know it just after frying as it wll stay soft as long as it is warm ...
    but if you cool it or keep it in the refrigerator it will turn hard.
    But after adding to the palak ... if it stayed well in the gravy and did not break and soaked the flavours well ... then no worries. :-)

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  29. Thanks looks like my days of store brought paneer are coming to an end.

    http://madscientistskitchen.blogspot.com/

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