Making paneer

Paneer or Chenna is the milk solids separated from milk after adding a souring agent as lemon juice, vinegar, yogurt, citric acid, tartaric acid. The solid protein part in milk gets curdled separating itself from its greenish whey. 

Paneer is one of the very good source of protein for vegetarians. 

The paneer after separating is sieved, pressed to varying pressures to yield paneer used in different ways. 

I start with making the soft paneer and then show the method for cubed paneer. 

Ingredients:

1 liter milk

2 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice

2 tbsp water

Method:

Put the milk to boil

Keep stirring in between, avoid formation of film.

Mix water and vinegar and keep it ready.

As soon as the milk starts to boil, turn off the heat, give milk a swirl and add the water-vinegar solution. Wait for a second. Stir it gently with a spoon and let rest for some time

After some time you will see milk solids separating and a greenish clear water. This water is whey. Don't throw it away. Add instead of water to curries or kneading dough.

Line a sieve with cheese cloth or any thin cloth. Transfer the paneer.

Rinse in cold water. The purpose of rinsing is two fold. One, it prevents further cooking and secondly removes the acid content from paneer.

Squeeze out water......

This is the soft paneer...

Soft paneer is used in making Indian sweets, paneer bhujji, malai koftas etc

If, you want to make the cubed paneer, then proceed further...

whey from paneer

If, you want to make the cubed paneer, then tie the washed paneer in a cloth, press it...

pat the paneer down 

put some weight on top to press it.  I used a watermelon as my weight :)

Remove weight after 20-25 minutes.  Remove paneer and cut it into desired sized pieces.

cubed paneer

The panner is now ready to be used. It can either be fried or used as it is in making dishes like paneer tikka,  paneer pakoras, shahi paneer, matar paneer, butter paneer, palak paneer. It can be used even in salads.

My Notes:
For a soft paneer, use full fat milk.
Keep stirring milk to prevent it scorching and film formation.