• Prep Time:
  • Cooking Time:
  • Serves: 1 Cup chenna

Fresh North Indian Cheese (Paneer Chenna or Paneer Tikki)

  • Recipe Submitted by on

Category: Condiments

 Ingredients List

  • -north India

 Directions

FLATBREADS & FLAVORS; ALFORD
2 qt Milk; whole or 2%
6 tb Juice, lemon

Place colander lined with 3-4 layers of cheesecloth over large bowl. Heat
milk gradually to boiling in heavy nonreactive saucepan, stirring
occasionally with wooden spoon tokeep it from scorching or forming a skin.
Then lower heat to medium and add lemon juice 1 tb at a time, stirring
gently with wooden spoon 15-20 seconds after adding each tb. The milk may
turn with as little as 1 tb lemon juice per quart, but it may take more, so
be patient; when it turns, the whiter curds will separate from the pale
green whey, so both color and texture will change. As soon as milk starts
to turn, remove from heat. Stir for another few seconds and then pour into
cloth-lined colander.

Rinse briefly under slow-running cold water to remove lemon taste. Gather
edges of cheesecloth together, squeeze out water, then knot together (or
loop a rubber band around it) to create a bag you can hang from a hook.
rinse out bown and place under cheesecloth bag to catch whey drips. After
only 20 minutes, you will have a soft cheese, paneer chenna.

To make paneer tikki, take bag down but don't untie it, and flatten lump of
chenna into 4" square. Leaving covered with cheesecloth, place it on plate
or countertop and flatten with heavy weight to compless it into
dense-textured cheese; we find it simplest to weight it with a bread board
with water-filled saucepan on top. Press cheese for 2 hours. Remove from
cheesecloth and use immediately, or store in plastic wrap in refrigerator.

Authors' comments: Paneer is fresh cheese made by souring hot milk with a
little lemon juice and then pressing out the liquid until it becomes a firm
mass. The process is simple and quick. The soft cheese produced after the
whey has drained is called paneer chenna. It is used in desserts, and is an
ingredient in a number of savory dishes. When paneer chenna is pressed
under a heavy weight for an hour or two, it firms up and becomes paneer
tikki, or wedge cheese, used commonly in north Indian dishes, such as
paneer kari. Paneer tikki has little taste of its won, but it has a
delightful texture. Unlike most cheeses, it keeps its firmness even when
heated, rather than melting.

Nutritional information per serving: xx calories, x.x gm protein, xx mg
cholesterol, xx gm carbohydrate, xx mg sodium, x.x gm fiber, x.x gm fat,
x.x mg iron, xx mg calcium, xx% of calories from fat.

Tyops courtesy of Sylvia Steiger, SylviaRN (at) CompuServe (dot) com


 Share this Recipe

Recipes by Course

Recipes by Main Ingredient

Recipes by Cuisine

Recipes by Preparation

Recipes by Occasion

Recipes by Dietary

Sign Up and Create a Cookbook Today!

Please Sign in to your Account or Sign up if you are new user.

Who loves our Healthy Recipes?