Fresh Cheese

To those of you who enjoy fresh cheese either in the form of ricotta or paneer, in lasagna or in jalfrezi this one is for you! The coagulant used can be any kind of acid be it lemon or vinegar. While from what I’ve read lemon seems more common to make ricotta as the traditional coagulant the use of vinegar seems to be more common in Indian soft cheeses like paneer.

This little ball of deliciousness is a vinegar based paneer.

Ingredients:

-2 ½ L of Whole milk

-Half a liter (500ml) of heavy cream

-2 ½ tbsp. of coagulant (vinegar/lemon)

Recipe:

1) Heat the milk and cream in a large pot on the stove on high heat until it reaches its boiling point stirring constantly.

2)Reduce to mid heat and add the coagulant while stirring vigorously.

3)As the milk curdles, keep stirring for another 10 min. or so until the cheese separates into curds leaving behind the greenish tinged whey.

4)Strain the cheese out in a cheesecloth or butter muslin spread over a colander. Place a bowl underneath to catch any leftover whey, keep it for later, I’ll post another recipe demonstrating how to dry it and eat it.

5)Twist the cheese into a ball and hang it using a string from the sink or suspending it from a clothesline (my approach lol) and let it hang for 15 min. (or more) the longer it hangs, the harder the cheese.

6)After that, cheese is ready, cut it up and prepare!

The cheese can be used in a whole variety of foods like this tasty Indian Jalfrezi!