Paneer is a common ingredient for many Indian food dishes prepared throughout North and South India. A great alternative to meat, paneer provides an excellent source of protein and fat for vegetarian diets. First time tourists of India unfamiliar with the Indian cuisine may find themselves asking, just what is this white, chunky stuff?
What is Paneer?
Paneer is a soft, crumbly cheese native to India. It’s versatile mild flavor makes it an ideal ingredient in Indian food recipes, especially gravies. The cheese is made from whole milk, making it high in protein yet also in fat. Paneer is considered to be a fresh hard cheese. It is an unaged, acid-set, non-melting farmer cheese made by curdling heated milk with lemon juice or other food acid.
The cheese is most often compared to cottage cheese or tofu. However, paneer is generally prepared unsalted and without bacteria or animal products so the substitution of cottage cheese is a less desirable option compared to tofu. As with any cheese, it is best avoided by anyone with trouble digesting lactose. People with high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or those watching their weight should limit their intake of paneer. It is a terrific protein option for tourists or other travelers of India who wish to avoid meat.
Popular Paneer Dishes
North Indians will swear by their paneer, and there are a thousand recipes from snacks to curries and desserts which are made entirely with paneer as the main ingredient. Tourists of India may also see paneer referred to as panir, channa or chenna, based on regional languages.
When used for cooking in main dishes, the cheese is sliced into flat cubes roughly 1″ by 1′ and mixed into the final product before serving. Paneer also makes a nice shredded garnish topping for briyani rice dishes, omelets, and various other vegetarian dishes.
Popular paneer dishes include:
- Paneer tikka (marinated chunks of paneer placed on skewers and roasted in the tandoor)
- Saag Paneer (made with mustard leaves in India, spinach elsewhere)
- Palak Paneer (made with spinach, closer in flavor and consistency to saag paneer served outside of India)
- Mattar paneer (made with peas)
- Paneer pakora (fried fritter excellent with ketchup or chutney, served as a snack)
- Paneer Parantha (stuffed bread generally served for breakfast)
- Rasgulla (chilled cheese balls served in chilled sugar syrup)
How to Make Paneer (recipe and video)
1. Heat one half gallon (roughly two liters) of whole milk until it is almost boiling.
2.Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, and stir the milk with a wooden spoon. The milk should start to curdle, forming a chunky white layer of curds from a thinner watery layer of whey. Add more lemon juice if this does not occur, and stir for several minutes.
3. Line a colander with clean cheesecloth, and pour the curds and whey into the colander. The whey will drain off, leaving the curds behind. Twist the cheesecloth to squeeze additional whey out, and hang it over the sink for half an hour.
4. After the half hour has elapsed, twist the cheesecloth again to compact the cheese and drain more whey away.
5. Hang the paneer for another half an hour, and then take it down and refrigerate it for several hours before use to compact it.
