Homemade Paneer - How to make Paneer at home

This post explains the preparation of homemade paneer - to prepare fresh and soft paneer at home. When I started to prepare paneer dishes at home, I used to buy paneer from shops as it was easy and quick to use. But somehow I was not satisfied with the texture or taste. 

Then I looked for methods to make paneer at home and went through few food blogs to understand the tips and tricks involved in the preparation. Dassana's vegrecipesofindia site helped me a lot to learn the process of making paneer at home. After trying quite a number of times with few mistakes and learning from them and correcting them - I can confidently make paneer now at home with ease. Whenever I have extra milk or curd at home, I end up making paneer 😊. In fact I have made rasgullas and rasmalai too with homemade paneer. Hence wanted to share my learnings here. 

Trust me once you start making it at home, you will never want to buy from the shops. And we can be assured of the ingredients too unlike the store-bought ones. Even if the first few attempts don't turn out as expected(like how it was for me), with practice it comes out perfect.                                      

Homemade Paneer

Serves - 2 to 3 people

Ingredients

• Milk  -  1 litre
• Thick curd  - 1/2 cup or as required (Lemon juice or vinegar can also be used to curdle the milk)

Method

1. Boil milk as usual.
   
   
   
2. Once it boils, reduce to slow flame,  add thick curd and mix well. Do not add the curd in one go. Add 2 to 3 tbsp first and stir well. Then add more curd as required based on how soon it curdles.
3. Keep stirring until it curdles and you can see green color whey water separating as shown in the below picture. Until this stage add curd as required. For 1 litre I usually use around 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of homemade curd.

   

   
   
4. Switch off and then use a vessel with strainer and white cloth on it and strain this curdled mixture through it.                                                                          
5. Wrap the cloth tightly and show under running water and squeeze the water content completely from it. It will be bit hot to do it but this step is compulsory for getting the perfect cubes. 
6. On a plate, keep the cloth on the strainer , place a heavy object on top and leave it for at least 1 hr. I usually use mortar/pestle for this. This will ensure any extra water content to be removed.

   

   
   
7. After 45 minutes to 1 hour it would have been perfectly set.   

   

   
   
8. If using immediately, cut into cubes and keep it immersed in warm water until used. Else keep the block of paneer in fridge in an airtight container and use it within 2 days. Once you take it from fridge, keep in warm water so that it stays soft.                                     

                                     

                    

Notes

• I have tried making paneer with both full cream and toned milk(with lesser fat content). Personally I am satisfied with the result of toned milk too and have been using it mostly. But it is usually suggested to use full cream milk for best results. 
• To curdle milk, curd/lemon juice/vinegar can be used. But I have personally tried with homemade curd always as I prefer it that way. If using lemon juice or vinegar, ensure that the curdled milk in the cloth is washed well so that there is no smell of it.
• I have read that the whey water can be used for other cooking purposes, but have not tried it personally. You may add it while preparing the roti dough or making dal/soups etc.

Below are few paneer based dishes that I had already posted in my blog :

1. Tawa Paneer Masala
2. Kadai Paneer