Some people prefer to cook sausages, pastes and other products with their own hands. It often turns out much tastier than the store options. This article will discuss how to make cheese panir at home. He is preparing according to the Adyghe principle and can be used in many dishes.
General characteristics
Indian cheese paneer is one of the most famous and popular. It is made from homemade cottage cheese, pressed to a dense mass. Classic panir should have a freshish taste. Cheese can be served as a cold appetizer, used in salads, soups or desserts.
Benefits of Homemade Cheese
Homemade cheese panier is made quickly and easily. For preparation, village milk is required (or with high fat content, closer to the present) and an acidic product, which can be in the form of:
- yogurt;
- lemon juice;
- kefir;
- sour cream.
Panir during heat treatment does not melt and does not lose shape. Cheese is a variety of dense, so when sliced it does not crumble. Paneer made at home is much better and cheaper than the store.
Paneer cheese made from milk and citric acid
Most often, they prefer to cook panir at home with citric acid. It can be replaced with lemon juice, which will require more. This recipe indicates the minimum amount of lemon. If you wish, you can add it more. For homemade cheese you will need:
- 1 liter of milk;
- 1 tsp citric acid;
- 0.5 tsp salt.
Milk is best taken homemade. If you use a storefront, it is desirable with a short shelf life. Super pasteurized will not do. Milk is poured into a large saucepan and brought almost to a boil. Then citric acid is poured into it. Everything is thoroughly mixed.
As soon as the foam begins to rise, the pan is removed from the fire. Or it decreases to a minimum, and the milk warms up for another 3 minutes. All this time the mixture must be mixed. It will be clearly visible how milk is divided into cottage cheese and whey.
A sieve or colander is taken and covered with a dense layer of gauze. The contents of the pan are poured into it. After the moisture drains, the gauze twists in a knot. All liquid is squeezed out as much as possible. Any form is taken (can, deep bowl, etc.) and the appearance of the cheese is formed.
Then the gauze with him is put back into a colander or sieve. A press is placed on top of the cheese mass. You can use the usual three-liter jar filled with water. Curd mass is kept under pressure for at least 60 minutes. Then the cheese is taken out and rinsed with running water to smooth the surface of the product.
Paneer made of milk and kefir
You can often make quality products at home. One of the favorite treats is the cheese panir. The recipe for kefir will require the following ingredients:
- 1 liter of milk with maximum fat content;
- 150 ml of kefir.
Milk is poured into the pan and put on fire until it boils. Then kefir is poured into a thin stream. In this case, the mass is constantly stirring. After a couple of minutes, the process of separating whey from cottage cheese will begin. After that, the dense pieces will float to the surface.
Marley is lined with a colander in several layers. The contents of the pan are poured onto the cloth. It is necessary to wait until the serum drains completely. Then the gauze is tightly tightened and placed in a deep bowl. Top pressed by the press. As it can be used any large container filled with water.
Paneer (cheese) cooked with spices
The recipe for cooking with spices differs little from the classic version. For the dish you will need:
- 2 liters of milk (with the highest fat content);
- juice squeezed from half a lemon;
- 30 g of dried spices (tomato slices, paprika, dill, etc.);
- salt to taste.
Milk is poured into a large saucepan and heated, but not brought to a boil. In this case, the liquid is constantly stirred. Then the burner turns off and the juice from half a large lemon survives in the warmed milk. It will be better if this is done in advance and the juice is filtered through a strainer or gauze.
While the lemon liquid is slowly pouring in, constant stirring is required for five minutes. You will immediately see how the milk begins to curl. After that, it will be divided into whey and cottage cheese. The bottom of the colander is lined with gauze. The contents of the pan are poured and left for a while until excess whey drains.
If the mass is constantly stirring, the process will go much faster. During it, salt and dried spices are added. After all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, the gauze is tightly twisted into a knot. The latter is pressed by oppression. Two hours are enough to form the cheese. It is better if the product under oppression will be in the cold.
Fried panir
Cooking cheese panir, as it turned out, a simple matter. But not everyone knows how to fry the finished product correctly. Panir does not melt at all from high temperature and therefore does not lose its shape. But properly fried cheese acquires an unusual, unique taste.
Again, a lot depends on the consistency of the product. Hard panir is easy to fry. It is cut into small slices, crumbled in spices and fried in a pan with vegetable oil. Soft cheese is prepared in a slightly different way. For fried paneer you will need:
- 200 g of cheese (soft);
- 1 tsp butter ghee;
- 0.5 tbsp. l cumin;
- a pinch of ground black pepper;
- a quarter teaspoon of turmeric;
- 1 tbsp. l sour cream;
- 0.5 bunch of parsley;
- a quarter teaspoon of salt.
Ghee (if it is not available) can be replaced with ordinary olive. On it, over high heat, a cumin is fried. At the same time, it should be constantly mixed. The cumin is fried until it turns golden brown. It is then that seasoning gives the oil all its aroma.
Slices of panir are added to the pan, then sprinkled with turmeric and salt. Everything is fried for several minutes. It is constantly mixed. Then the dish is removed from the heat, pepper and sour cream are added. Everything is mixed and sprinkled with chopped greens.
How much does citric acid cheese need?
The amount of citric acid that is used to make the bread is directly dependent on the quality of the milk. In stores it sells a lot of types. Many added special components that prevent milk from rapidly curdling. Therefore, more than one teaspoon of citric acid may be required. But even in this case, the milk still turns whitish instead of yellow.
Features of cheese making
After coagulating substance has been added to milk, the resulting product cannot be kept on fire for a long time. Otherwise, the cheese panir will become very hard. If you want crumbly cheese, turmeric seasoning is added during cooking. The remaining whey is a secondary product that can be used to prepare other dishes (pancakes, okroshka, etc.).
If, despite a large amount of coagulation added to milk, the expected dense solid layer is not formed, then the product is removed from the fire and left to “rest” for several hours. During this period, solid particles will rise above the serum and a curd layer will appear.
Citric acid, which is usually used to make cheese panir, is easily replaced with other components. For example, for fermented milk whey. It will take 150 ml to fold 600 ml of milk. The second option is yogurt. With its use, the leaven turns out to be thick and very tasty. To coagulate 600 ml of milk, 5 tablespoons of yogurt are needed.
But the easiest option is squeezed lemon juice. It gives a sour taste. It will need at least 5 tablespoons per 2 liters of milk. After the cheese is ready, it can be served as a separately sliced dish (with or without sauce), or overcooked with spices.
The higher the fat content of milk, the better the final product. If gauze is not available, it is replaced with a clean white cotton cloth (no print or paint). Salt or granulated sugar can be added before milk curd has begun.
There are special devices and containers for making cheeses. If milk is not curdled at all, then you can try to boil it. In this case, constant stirring is necessary. For panir, stale or sour milk is not suitable. It is also problematic to make cheese from low fat.
How to achieve the desired cheese density?
Paneer cheese can be made hard or not very hard. There are two different methods for this. In order to make the cheese dense, you need to bind the gauze in which the product lies, and press it down with a press.
Panir should lie until all serum has drained. The longer it then lies, the denser it will become. For a soft consistency, the panir is placed in cheesecloth. It is tied tightly and left in a colander until all the moisture has drained and the cheese has become hard.