24 H with a Master Chef of Indian Cuisine

[Robbo141]

Paneer is very straightforward and worth the time. I do it regularly with a gallon of whole milk. I bought the missis a cheese press the other year when we had a bash at making cheddar, but heavy pots can do the job too.
Chetna Makhan has a good video on it.

https://youtu.be/CD49ehg-gBQ?si=IPMPOMEXI2uORy2X

Robbo

[Kashmiri Bob]

Thanks for all these great tips for making paneer. I am on it. Looking at a plastic press gadget. I like gadgets. One of the reviewers reckons it's the perfect size for paneer made with 2 l milk, which should be adequate for me. Can also store with it in the fridge. Only thing is, the inner basket is moulded, so when done my paneer will say TOFUTURE on top of it. Not ideal, but I can live with it.

Rob

[Kashmiri Bob]

Paneer planed for this weekend. Wish me luck!

The video mentions paneer sandwiches (triangles) with a walnut filling. Would liked to have seen these being made. Whoever filmed this seemed most interested in what was coming out of the tandoor. Anyway, found a rather interesting recipe for a filling. It's actually part of a curry recipe, which looks nice, but I think the sandwiches themselves might be quite tasty, as a starter dish. I had some paneer sandwiches from a local place fairly recently. They had a really thin green filling. No idea what it was, as it didn't really taste of anything. Wasn't cheap either.

https://californiawalnuts.in/walnut-paneer-pasanda/

Rob

[Kashmiri Bob]

Made some paneer. Lovely stuff. 360g block from 2l milk, a slosh of single cream and fresh lemon juice.  I think next time may add some more cream. The chef in the video recommends that the milk should be at least 5% fat. I had no idea whole milk is only about 3.5 - 3.8 % fat nowadays. I bet this is another idea from the EU. I remember the cream on the top of bottled whole milk from times gone by.

Press gadget worked well. Next time I will use the middle "setting," as under full tension it was starting to squeeze the cheese through the drainage holes.

Put half of the block in the freezer. Toasted the rest to make garlic chilli paneer. Had some with a shami kebab and tandoori chicken bites. Made a nice little starter.













Rob

[curryhell]

Nice work Rob.  Glad the gadget worked well for you.  Was it better than the paneer you can buy?  I too remember the days of cream at the top of the milk bottle    Been doing a bit of basic traditional indian cooking recently.  It's prompting a  few questions on how the traditional process transposes to BIR practices and the pitfall we sometimes have.  Food for thought 

[Kashmiri Bob]

Nice work Rob.  Glad the gadget worked well for you.  Was it better than the paneer you can buy?  I too remember the days of cream at the top of the milk bottle    Been doing a bit of basic traditional indian cooking recently.  It's prompting a  few questions on how the traditional process transposes to BIR practices and the pitfall we sometimes have.  Food for thought 

Yes, I won't be buying supermarket paneer again. I suppose part of this will be the satisfaction of making it from scratch. Although it does seem identical to typical desi sweet/vegetarian places, as I recall, which is presumably also homemade, and really good. Forgot to mention I did add salt when making it. Next will be the paneer sandwiches with a walnut filling. The recipe indicates mixed pickle so will go with this. Am thinking about trying a lime pickle instead at some point.

Tell us more about your transpositions Dave.

Rob

[Kashmiri Bob]

Kesar (mango) chicken. Starter.

Rob

[Kashmiri Bob]

Made some more paneer, this time adding 300 ml of single cream to the whole milk (3.7 % fat). The cream effectively doubles the cost. This is obviously a downside when using "fake" milk.

Looks good though. I will be able to make the walnut filled paneer sandwiches. I did try last time but the cheese was too crumbly. Also made the mistake of following the recipe to spec. So, cut the triangles first. Watched the Milan video again. They make the sandwiches with squares, to start with. Then, after frying, they cut them in half on the diagonal. Clever. Why didn't I think of that?







Rob