KCB 1.6: Home-made Curd Cheese (Panir)
Home-made Curd Cheese (Panir)
Curd cheese, or Panir, is the Indian equivalent of bean curd (tofu). It is rich in protein and extremely versatile. It can be deep-fried and used in vegetable dishes, crumbled into salads, made into sweets, stuffed inside breads and pastries, and creamed into dips. Curd cheese is the simplest kind of unripened cheese and is made by adding an acid or other curdling agent to hot milk. The solid milk protein coagulates to form the soft curd cheese, the liquid whey is separated, and the cheese is drained, pressed, and then used as required. Because curd cheese is not available in shops outside of India, I have included the simple recipe for making your own.
The quality and freshness of the milk will determine the quality of the curd cheese. The higher the fat-content of the milk, the richer the curd cheese. Different curdling agents will produce different types of curd. The most common curdling agents are strained, fresh lemon juice, citric acid crystals dissolved in water, sour whey from a previous batch of curd cheese, and the whey residue from hanging yogurt to make Shrikhand, Greek Yogurt Dip, or Syrian Yogurt Cheese. Left-over yogurt or buttermilk used as curdling agents produce good curd cheese. Here are some hints in making your curd cheese.
1. Don't allow your milk to scorch or burn, as this will spoil the taste of the curd cheese.
2. Don't unnecessarily use all the prescribed acid curdling agent unless the milk stays a whitish colour. Overcurdling tends to produce an unpleasant acidic taste.
3. If you use all the curdling agent and the milk has still not completely curdled, add a little more curdling agent until the whey becomes clear.
4. Bad flavours in the cheese indicate that the milk was not fresh or that the utensils were dirty.
5. Tough or crumbly curd results from using low-fat milk or from allowing the curd cheese to remain too long over the heat once it has separated from the whey.
FRESH LEMON JUICEAPPROX MATE YIELD OF CURD CHEESE
4 cups (1 litre)6 teaspoon (30 ml)3/4 cup (185 ml)
6 cups (1.5 litres)2 tablespoons (40 ml)1 1/8 (280 ml)
8 cups (2 litres)3 tablespoons (60 ml)1 1/2 cups (375 ml)
10 cups (2.5 litres)1/3 cup (85 ml)1 7/8 cups (475 ml)
16 cups (4 litres)6 tablespoons (120 ml)3 cups (750 ml)
Home-made Curd Cheese (Panir) is featured in many recipes in this book, such as Bengali Royal Rice; Eggplant, Potato and Curd Cheese; Tomato, Peas and Home-made Cheese, and Curd Pakoras. Lemon Cream Cheese Fudge (Sandesh) also features panir, smoothed into a cream-cheese consistency.
Curd cheese can also be crumbled and mixed into salads or vegetable dishes such as Scrambled Curd or as a substitute for ricotta cheese in Spinach Filo Triangles.
Here's how to prepare curd
1. Boil the milk in a heavy-based saucepan, stirring often to prevent scorching or sticking. Lower the heat and add the lemon juice or other curdling agent. (See above chart for quantities.) Stir the milk gently until it curdles; then remove the saucepan from the heat. If the liquid is not clear but is still milky, return the saucepan to the heat. If it hasn't fully cleared after another minute, add more curdling agent.
2. Place the saucepan of curds and whey aside for 10 minutes. Pour or scoop the contents of the pan into a colander lined with cheesecloth, gather the corners, and hold the bag of cheese under lukewarm water for 10 seconds. Squeeze the bag, place it back in the colander, and press it under a heavy weight for 3/4-1 1/2 hours or as desired.
3. Unwrap the curd cheese and use as required. It will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
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