"Paneer" news and stories

Cheesemaking is an exacting art -- a balance of the right milk, the right bacteria and the right temperature. There are a million ways it can go wrong, and, for most home cooks, it's best left to the pros. Not so with fresh, unaged cheeses like ricotta or the mild Indian paneer, which, in its simplest form, is a mixture of milk and lemon juice. It's easy to whip up for the classic silky spinach dish saag paneer, or, as the paneer-making blogger at the Dabble did for the photo above, fry it in a bit of butter until it caramelizes then sprinkle it with salt.

Trusted paneer maker and doyenne of the Indian kitchen Julie Sahni adds cider vinegar and yogurt to the standard ingredients in a recipe from her Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking, a volume well worth having on your bookshelf.

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Want to know what to do when your milk has started to turn?

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Wow. All I can say when I look at Meena's Chilli Paneer on her blog Hooked on Heat is "wow." Sometimes I wonder if in a previous lifetime I was an Indian princess (not just Indian, but a princess!) because the spices, flavors and ingredients of Indian cuisine give me shivers like no other. Aside from the fact that this dish is absolutely glisteningly gorgeous in the photo, I was totally taken by how long, er rather, short the preparation time is. Meena sears the Indian cottage cheese cubes (which, to me, have a texture similar to a crumbly tofu) in oil, then basically stir fries them with onions, garlic, and chili peppers. The dark color comes, oddly enough, from soy sauce.