Repeat After Me: Home Made Cheese
I do not know how to produce (cook? curdle?) gouda or jarlsburg, but I did make paneer last night so there's that. And it looked pretty good? Paneer is one of those things that, because it's not ubiquitous in non-South Asian cooking, it's stupidly expensive to buy. If I remember correctly, I once spent over $5 for a fist-sized brick. Yet, the tofu-like cheese is actually extremely cheap and easy to make. Like, I am shocked that I don't do this all the time—that is, when I'm not trapped inside my apartment because of an ever-spreading viral pandemic.
The recipe is simple (I got it from Meera Sodha's wonderful book Fresh India): Dump some milk in a pot, heat it up, throw in some lemon juice to curdle it, then strain it all out. Here is my ingredient breakdown:
- 1 gallon of whole milk
- 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (two lemons' worth)
There you go, that's it.
This is how I went about it: I brought the milk to a boil, stirring constantly to make sure it didn't burn at the bottom (the milk did slightly boil over, so watch out about that—it made quite a mess). Then I reduced the heat and added the lemon juice. Then I stirred and watched it separate into squiggly curdles and turned off the heat. After that, I poured the gloopy milk water into a colander in my sink that was lined with a cheese cloth (I actually used a tofu press, but not everyone owns a tofu press and colanders are just as good). I filled the milk pot with cold water and used that to rinse the curds of lemon juice. I lined the top with the remaining cheese cloth so the curds were encased on all dies, and then put some flat item (like a plate) on top and weighed it down with a small sturdy something (like a large can). Three-ish hours later and I had paneer (about 1 tofu block's worth, I'd say), which I'm going to cook tonight.
This homemade paneer probably isn't as firm as the kind you buy in the store, but it looks like it will cube up fine. I think I'm going to either add it to a tomato curry or panfry with a cilantro jalapeño chutney.
Perhaps this is the beginning of a cheese-making culinary revolution for me. More likely, it just means I will no longer spend a dumb amount of money at Whole Foods for something that cost me ~$3 to make.
The recipe is simple (I got it from Meera Sodha's wonderful book Fresh India): Dump some milk in a pot, heat it up, throw in some lemon juice to curdle it, then strain it all out. Here is my ingredient breakdown:
- 1 gallon of whole milk
- 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (two lemons' worth)
There you go, that's it.
This is how I went about it: I brought the milk to a boil, stirring constantly to make sure it didn't burn at the bottom (the milk did slightly boil over, so watch out about that—it made quite a mess). Then I reduced the heat and added the lemon juice. Then I stirred and watched it separate into squiggly curdles and turned off the heat. After that, I poured the gloopy milk water into a colander in my sink that was lined with a cheese cloth (I actually used a tofu press, but not everyone owns a tofu press and colanders are just as good). I filled the milk pot with cold water and used that to rinse the curds of lemon juice. I lined the top with the remaining cheese cloth so the curds were encased on all dies, and then put some flat item (like a plate) on top and weighed it down with a small sturdy something (like a large can). Three-ish hours later and I had paneer (about 1 tofu block's worth, I'd say), which I'm going to cook tonight.
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| Will you look at that! It's a big old hunk of home made cheese! |
This homemade paneer probably isn't as firm as the kind you buy in the store, but it looks like it will cube up fine. I think I'm going to either add it to a tomato curry or panfry with a cilantro jalapeño chutney.
Perhaps this is the beginning of a cheese-making culinary revolution for me. More likely, it just means I will no longer spend a dumb amount of money at Whole Foods for something that cost me ~$3 to make.
This is beautiful
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