Introducing my long-overdue guide to preparing homemade fresh paneer or cottage cheese! Despite my past oversights in capturing the process, I've now made it a point to keep a small camera handy in my kitchen to document each step, especially for beginners.

This method applies to both fresh milk and milk powder, with the only distinction being that milk powder requires mixing with water before boiling, akin to the process with fresh milk, followed by the curdling process.

Making paneer at home is a safer and healthier option, resulting in a product that is wonderfully soft and succulent—a perfect addition to your dishes. While reliable store-bought options exist for emergencies, there's nothing quite like the freshness and control over quantity that homemade paneer provides.

For those opting for milk powder, it's worth noting that the paneer may have a slightly sweet taste due to added sugar in some store-bought brands. Opting for unsweetened milk powder, if available, can eliminate this sweetness. However, personally, I found the subtle sweet undertone quite agreeable.

Now, you might wonder why bother with milk powder for paneer. The idea is to demonstrate that a quick paneer can be prepared with milk powder if it happens to be in your pantry—a convenient experiment for those with this ingredient readily available.

Ingredients:

1 litre milk or the qty you want..method is same.1-2 tbsp lime juice.MethodBoil milk in a vessel, as it comes up boiling , slowly add the lime juice while stirring the milk gently with one hand, ( see pics )You will see that milk begins to curdle..wait for few minutes and add more lime juice only if you see there are some milky liquid left...the curdling process will leave all the thick fat and water separate..

Now add some ice cubes if you have or chilled water to the curdled milk, to stop the cooking of fat and to get a correct texture of the paneer, and to remove the lemony taste, remove water by draining the whey ( save this whey for making chapati dough )

when all the watery liquid is removed, drain in a sieve

After an hour, remove the thick collected fat from the tea sieve, now use a fine cheesecloth or any good clean thin white fabric to tie the paneer and to get a firmer cheese.
Make a bundle, wring it as much as you can to remove water , then keep tied on a door handle or above a vessel, or tie it to a kitchen tap to drip water.

Check out the youtube video from my channel

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