It is 2020 and We Are Food Blogging, Baby!

(I was supposed to artfully drizzle some cream at the end but it looks like a disaster, which is fine because we don't have to rely so heavily on aesthetics around here!) There is something soothing about making, cultivating, or growing an ingredient to use for several recipes--especially during this time. My boyfriend has already used some of the scallion we have been growing in my kitchen to make soft scrambled eggs! And right on time, on day five, my basil has finally sprouted! And for the Paneer Butter Masala, Meera Sodha's recipe from Fresh India , we decided to make our own paneer! We used the same recipe that Cale blogged about  but since we are not blessed with a tofu press, we used a colander, cheese cloth, and a 2-quart dutch oven to press. Still VERY easy! What I also love about this recipe is that you can find a lot of things in your pantry already: canned tomatoes, frozen peas, lots of spices, the herbs you've been storing properly , etc. I did...

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 t...