Making Paneer

Making Farmers Cheese

Day 1 - Paneer:
Special equipment:
Large, tall pot (the kind one boils corn in) and a strainer lined with a wet cheesecloth or other porous cloth. Much to Maji's dismay, I used an old, threadworn undershirt remnant. (Well, it was clean.)
Ingredients: 1 gallon whole milk
1 pint heavy cream
1 cup lemon juice (or so, more is better than less for a good reaction)

Procedure:

Have the lemon juice and the strainer lined with a wet cheesecloth ready and waiting. It takes the milk some time to boil, but when it does, one needs to be able to react instantly. Watch constantly!

Bring whole milk and cream to a boil in a large pot. This seems to take forever and then all of a sudden the milk will start frothing up. Immediately turn off the heat and dump the lemon juice in. The milk should curdle instantaneously (hopefully into large, pea sized curds). Stir to get as much of the milk curdled as possible.

Pour carefully into the strainer. Allow the curds to drain. Once the whey just seeps out in slow drips and the curds have formed a soft lump, lift the cheesecloth of curds over to a slanted board. Flatten the curds (still in the cheesecloth) into an approximately one inch thick disk. Cover with a plate. Weight the plate down with a large pot full of water, or anything heavy. Let drain for a few hours. Carefully open up the cheesecloth and deposit the cheese (now a rather firm disk). Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate overnight.