My Indian Kick.

As I've mentioned previously, the last two times we've been to Raleigh to see our daughter, we've been to

India Mahal Restaurant

Now, last week, I made the wonderful
Chicken Curry .

So, I really want to explore this unique cuisine.

Today, I made my own paneer.

You can read about paneer
here in Wikipedia.
Yes, I know, it's the definitive site for any and all things.

I went to Google and came up with numerous sites.

I liked these two:

Mahanandi
and
this lovely site.

Well, you know me.
I can't follow a recipe exactly.

The recipe called for whole milk.

I only had 1 % milk.

So I took 2 cups of 1 % milk, added one cup of half and half,
and one cup of heavy cream.

Then I had a bunch of those little tiny limes (Key limes?) I bought for $1.00 yesterday at Harris Teeter.
I squeezed a bunch of them.
Maybe 2-3 tablespoons.

I brought my milk to a boil on medium heat, stirring constantly.



Once the milk came to a boil, I reduced the heat and added the lime juice.





In a few minutes, I saw small curds floating on top. I didn't think they got as big as I thought they were supposed to do, even after cooking the 5 minutes, and cutting off the heat and waiting 5 more minutes.

Soooooo, I consulted another recipe,
heated the milk up again to the boil,
added some buttermilk and plain yogurt in.
That did the trick.

Cooked it another 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Then let set 5 minutes.

I poured the mixture into a cheesecloth-lined sieve.

ACTION PIC!
It looks like a miniature tornado.

Here's the mixture settling in the cheesecloth.


Lots of whey draining through.

After about 30 minutes of draining, I brought the cheesecloth up in a ball,
tied it up with rubber bands,
and squeezed it to get the water out.

At this point, I left the curds in cheese cloth, in a strainer, draining in a measuring cup in the refrigerator, while I went to Manteo for my cooking class.

I came back home and un-cheeseclothed this.

Here's my cheese.
I'm quite proud of myself.
I gots me a ball-o'-cheese.