Cheese making out of the box: paneer

I decided that I wanted to make some cheese that wasn't italian. Of course it had to be paneer, one of my favorite things in the world. I didn't have any instruction but I was armed with both whole milk and the whole internet. How hard could it be?

Well not hard really. A little hard perhaps. See the problem I had was that the recipes I found were written by people who had seen the process in action before and so some of the instructions weren't as clear as they could be. Not as bad as some confectionary recipes I've seen where it's all 'heat sugar and water and when it's runny enough...' but a few of the steps left me scratching my head.

I found a great recipe on Veg Recipes of India, got over my need to have my hand held and went with it. It worked! I got cheese. It's more crumbly than the commercial stuff but has a much richer taste. definitely worth the effort to make.

Unfortunately I didn't remember that it's more delicate and treated it roughly in the pan. Which is why the presentation of the panner tikka from Prashad is a little on the just pile it on the plate side. That and I keep forgetting to buy skewers.