How to make paneer

Milk, yoghurt and paneer are essential dairy ingredients in the widespread vegetarian Indian diet, providing a daily dose of protein and calcium. It also partially explains why the cows are so sacred here and are free to roam the streets of cities and villages all over the country.

I have enjoyed Saag Paneer (Indian cheese with Greens) many times at my favourite Indian Restaurant however I have experienced a whole new level of cow devotion on discovering the real Indian paneer. Paneer Tikka (cooked in the tandoor ovens on skewers), Paneer Korma, Muttar Paneer and Palak Paneer are just some of my best foodie discoveries in the restaurants here. But I was desperate to make these dishes at home but I hadn’t yet seen it in the shops.

Another developing Indian food obsession is Mithai – Indian Sweets. Many of these sweeties are also milk based (another reason for the holy cow maybe) and so sweet that some are even too much for my saccharine tooth. Heaven too for a gluten free girl, but more on that another time...

But, whilst browsing my local sweet shop something new to take home, I discovered that this was the place to buy paneer. Logical? No – but a great find - I was now able to create some of my most favourite dishes.

The cheese itself just needs heating in the sauce, so lends itself to quick cook suppers, especially Paneer Korma which is nothing like the British version of the sauce. However, buying this everyday (like most things here...) was turning into a bit of a cheese chore so I researched a rumour online that it was easy to make.

Luckily, after one passable attempt from an online recipe, I started my regular cooking class with Amita, and paneer was our first recipe. Making the paneer in class, I could see how cheese makers become so passionate about their craft. It really is a magic and utterly satisfying process resulting in a simple yet versatile product... and this one you can very easily and quickly make at home.

So I encourage you, if you haven’t made paneer before to give it a try – especially if you live in a place where it’s difficult to buy. It’s a quintessential Indian ingredient – and how cool is it to say “I made cheese today”....?

Home Made Paneer (Indian Cheese)
Ingredients
1 litre of whole milk
Souring agent (4 tbsp lemon juice / vinegar or ½ to 1 cup of plain yoghurt)
Flavourings (optional – fresh coriander, cumin seeds for example)
Method
Gently heat the milk in a heavy based saucepan stirring occasionally to prevent a skin forming
To ensure the flavourings get incorporated into the paneer, mix them into the yoghurt
Mix a little of the warm milk with the cool yoghurt to bring the temperatures closer
Just before the milk boils, add the yoghurt to the milk and stir gently. Don’t mix it too much as this will break down the curds and you want them to come together naturally
The milk will begin to separate into curds and whey – if you do not eventually get a clear-ish whey, add more souring agent
Once the whey has turned milky white remove the pan from the heat (you do not want to boil the curd as this produces a harder cheese)
Drape muslin large enough to hold the cheese and be tied, over a bowl big enough to take the liquid
Pour the curds and whey into the cloth and gently strain
Tie the cloth, and place the paneer in a straight sided dish with the knot to the side so that the paneer presses flat.
Place the bowl with the whey on top of the paneer as a weight to press the cheese.
Leave to press for about an hour, or longer if you want a much firmer cheese.
Store for up to 3 days submerged in water to prevent the cheese from drying out.
SAVE WASTE - Use the leftover whey to make dal or roti as it is very rich in nutrients, with a natural sweetness.

More adventures in pressure cooking

Since my adventures with a pressure cooker, I have begun a regular Indian cooking class with Amita - a very skilled and knowledgeable cook. The first lesson we were making Dalcha, a lentil dish with lamb on the bone cooked in 2 pressure cookers for speed – one for the lamb and one for the dal. But first I need to set the scene. My classmates are British and Americans expats who have already taken a series of classes with our teacher. As part of this course they toured the bazaars of Old Delhi for authentic spices and cooking implements (plus a few pearls and yards of fabric for good measure). One of the purchases they each made was a pressure cooker. So, back in Amita's kitchen, as the steam started to pssssssschhhht out of the pressure cooker spout we all jumped out of skin. It seemed I was not alone in my fear of this speedy cooking beast.

As Amita attempted to talk over the immense amount of pressure being released on the stove, she looked calm and relaxed. This was exactly the steam explosion I had been witnessing in my own kitchen... “was this the whistle?” I wondered.

Breaking the silence and admitting my fear and trepidation of using my pressure cooker – the others each chuckled bashfully admitting theirs were still in the wrapper - they too were scared!

So Amita, whilst trying to contemplate the thought of cooking meat on the bone without the speedy pot, confirmed that the racket coming from the stove every minute or so was indeed the “whistle”. I had been waiting for the gentle steam train sound I recall from the days my mum made lemon curd hers... but my baby was an Indian pressure cooker. Mine was not the same.

So, after a hugely informative and enlightening class, I returned home to face my demon. Determined not to be beaten by a glorified saucepan I pulled out my dal recipe, took a deep breath and washed my dal thoroughly - in four changes of water, just to be sure. I measured the dal and water as instructed, secured the lid and waited for the steam to shoot through the nozzle, when I whacked on the weight.

I waited for the screech. It screeched. Really loudly. But I remained calm, utilising some yogic breathing from my dawn yoga class. Whilst anxiously holding my breath, I waited for the pressure to subside and noise to stop, which it did. Result! I had made it through my first whistle... only one more to go. I braced myself...

So this pattern continues. I am not sure if I will ever stop jumping each time the pressure is released with a hiss from the pan – but I have felt the fear (of the dal exploding all over my rented ceiling) and cooked it anyway. And according to my resident guinea pig this was my best yet!

Below is the recipe for my best dal yet, which I now use on a weekly basis at least. Dal is an staple dish on every Indian table. It varies depending on whether I have fresh tomatoes in the house, but one thing is consistent – I use my Indian pressure cooker every time!

My best yellow dal yet

Ingredients:

1 cup of urad (yellow) dal cooked in the pressure cooker with 3 cups of water for 6 minutes (2 whistles)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1tsp cumin seeds

1 onion finely chopped

1 green chilli finely slices

1 tbsp grated fresh ginger

2 cloves of garlic minced

3-4 fresh tomatoes diced or half a can of tinned or packet tomatoes

3/4tsp tumeric

3/4 tsp garam masala

1 1/2tsp ground coriander

100ml water

Method
Heat the oil in a meduim sized heavy based pan and fry the cumin seeds until fragrant and spluttering.

Add the onion, chilli, ginger and garlic and fry until the onion goes brown

Add the tomatoes fry for a couple of minutes

Add all the spices and the water and simmer for about 1ominutes, or until the oil has risen to the surface.

Add the mixture to the lentils and cook for a few minutes to meld the flavours and serve with basmati rice.

NOTE 1: This dish best made ahead and eaten a day later when the flavours have developed.

NOTE 2: If you aren't brave enough to use a pressure cooker, you can cook the lentils in a saucepan for about 30-40mintues. Break the lentils down with the back of a spoon so that you get a pressure cooker style texture on them and a thicker sauce.

An excuse to get in the kitchen...?

I don't generally need one, only a new ingredient to get to grips with or a craving to satisfy. However there's a great competition at Allrecipes.co.uk- a site I have been using a lot since I had to leave my recipe book collection behind in the UK. All you have to do is 'Share your Secret' recipe (nothing more personal) and post an original recipe and photo to win £500. Its that easy, although finding an original recipe may not be... or is it just me that creates mess and disaster every time I 'wing it'?

Adventures in pressure cooking

Beans and pulses are a gluten free cook’s dream and are widely used in Indian cookery. Sold here in their dried form rather than canned, there are hundreds of beans to play with and they make a refreshing base to rice – which I have to admit I not tired of yet!

It seems the key to cooking in India is based on forward planning. You buy the vegetables when you need them as they don’t keep in the scorching heat, and the milk or paneer when you need it before it sours. Likewise with dried beans you have to plan when to cook them so you can soak them as required over night or when you are work.

I have also discovered the secret to Indian recipes is a pressure cooker. Both energy and time saving – especially when cooking chick peas which can take hours on the hob – cooking curries in a pressure cooker also creates the unique texture and holds onto those exquisite spices.

After much debating (how will I get a pressure cooker back to the UK?), I opted for a little 3 litre version to begin my adventures with. I have been studying the manual for days. I am a total novice pressure cooker and stories of my mother’s exploding jam made me a little nervous about using it for the first time to say the least.

I planned to spend today doing some cooking – perfecting some recipes in anticipation of visiting family – so remembered to soak some chickpeas overnight. Plump and ready for cooking, I researched online the amount of water and time needed to cook them in a pressure cooker. I stumbled upon this great site with a huge table of cooking times – invaluable for a novice like me.

Armed with quantities and timings I set about cooking the beans, only to have water spurting out of the spout, even before the weight was put on top. After much stressing, huffing and online researching (google-ing “why is my pressure cooker spouting water?) I let the pan cool down and went in for a second attempt.

Making sure this time there was a constant stream of steam coming out of the spout before I clicked the weight into place (as per the instructions please note) and had the same issue again. Argh! So I gave up. I let the pressure subside – in my own head and in the kitchen – and wrote it off as experience.

Returning later to clear up the mess, I took out a chick pea to see if I could rescue it as I hate to waste my time and food. They were cooked. All of them! Don’t know how, but the great thing was it meant I could continue to make the channa pindi I had planned which turned out to be a triumph.

Granted this is not the nicest picture, but channa pindi is the most delicious dish and even better the day after when the flavours have had a chance to come together

No doubt there will be many more adventures in pressure cooking. I am determined to master this way of cooking, if not just to cook all the beans I have bought.

Channa Pindi

This is a pretty quick to cook dish so long as you have the chick peas cooked. Personally I think tinned chick peas pick up a metallic flavour (which is why I have been battling with my pressure cooker) but for convenience you can't beat them.

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil or ghee, plus extra for tempering at the end

250g cooked chick peas

1tsp cumin seeds

1tsp mustard seeds

1 onion finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic chopped

1" ginger peeled and finely chopped

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp red chili powder

1/2 tsp garam masala

1/4 tsp turmeric

2 ripe tomatoes diced

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4tsp ground cloves

1 sliced green chili

Method

Heat 2 tbsp oil or ghee and crackle the cumin seeds and mustard seeds.

Add the garlic, onion and ginger and cook on a low heat until brown

Add the ground coriander, red chili powder, garam masala, turmeric and stir well to combine

Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until the oil separates (be patient)

Add the chick peas and cook until fairly dry

Heat the remaining oil in a small pan and fry the cinnamon powder, clove powder and fresh chili until fragrant (you just want to release their flavours). This should take just a few moments otherwise they burn.

Add to the dish and serve with rice or roti and devour.

What can you do when it gets to 40degrees?

Eat ice cream.

We don't have a freezer at the flat, so on a hot and sticky Easter Sunday we ventured out into the scorching heat looking for refreshment in the form of gluten free ice cream. Many people think that ice cream is a no-brainer for people with Coeliac Disease. But it often comes with complimentary wafers, in a cone, or with cookie dough (if you choose that flavour of course).

Here in India ice cream is big business, and just in our local market, we have three places to go. Good job its going to stay hot for the next 3 months for us to try each flavour at each shop. Shame!

On Sunday we decided to try the homemade ice creams of Big Chill. A cafe that serves pasta and pizzas in an movie themed air conditioned restaurant, they have a humongous selection of ice creams, frozen yoghurt's and sundaes. Many of the combinations are unfortunately gluten infested. American style flavours such as cookie dough, Oreo, chocolate brownie are all the rage here, but thankfully they do simpler safe flavours too.

I had difficulty in choosing between my new favourite thing, mango ice cream or a banana chocolate fest sundae. Since Jack had chosen the mintochoco blast overload or some wicked name like that, I wasn't going to miss out and opted for a chocolate hit.

Although pretty small, the ingredients of the sundaes sure do pack a sugar punch! Three scoops of rich dark Belgian chocolate ice cream with their signature rich, dark and not too sweet chocolate sauce, mixed with loads of fresh chopped banana (the bananas here taste like banana milkshake!) topped with fresh whipped cream.

Needless to say, we had a late supper after a sugar crash imposed Sunday afternoon snooze. But at least we had cooled down.

**Apologies for the lack of pictures... I completely forgot to take any amongst all the ice cream excitement!

Coffee Fix

A leaving present from my colleagues at FoodLovers Britain was a pack of coffee from what I believe to be the best coffee shop in London - Monmouth Coffee. This had priority packing status when I left the UK, and it was safely transported to New Delhi for our morning fixes in our new home. The coffee - Fazenda Barreiro from Brazil and ground for our cafetiere - is so fruity and fragrant it tastes like the tropical climate we are living in.

We have been savouring the intense taste and perfect crema, as India is not known for its high quality coffee. The travel books all talk of "stand your spoon up in it" milky Nescafe, but actually this is not the case.

India has a long history as a coffee drinking nation, and today is the sixth biggest coffee producer. Back when the Mughals ruled Delhi between 1526 and 1857 men loved to debate, discuss politics and listen to poetry in the coffee houses of Chandi Chowk, in what is now Old Delhi. Brought to India from Persia, the coffee houses were extremely popular largely due to the Hindu abstention from alcohol - much like the Delhi of today.

Coffee shops in Delhi today are at every market and dominated by two chains; Barista serving Lavazza coffee in a fast food style environment and Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) which has a more relaxed feel. Although CCD is a huge chain with 733 outlets nationwide, their coffee is really very good, and not remotely like Starbucks to whom I initially compared them.

Part of the Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company who grow, cure and export India's finest beans from Chickmaglur in the state of Karnataka, they work with 11,000 small coffee farmers, to create a smooth and rich coffee. In the cafes, the list of drinks they serve is endless with lots of iced versions to beat the heat. But, their chocolate or mocha versions – even for a coffee purist such as myself - are really very good, albeit more of a desert than a drink. They use a shot of real espresso coffee (not the ready-made mixes like Starbucks) and rich, strong dark chocolate. We often pop along to our local friendly Cafe Coffee Day of an evening for a Cafe Frappe caffeine hit as we would visit the pub back home.

As the stock of Monmouth coffee dwindles, one of the conditions for family coming to visit us is "bring good coffee (or decent wine)". But even as we enjoy our last sip of Monmouth coffee, in the mean time we can sample the drinks in Delhi’s exploding coffee shop culture made from locally sourced coffee beans.

Oh, and for all those coffee lovers out there... here is a warning to you all.

The first of many Indian cookery classes

Based out of her home in South Delhi, Jyoti of Gourmet Desire, passionately uncovers the secrets of Indian cooking. Taught by her mother and mother-in-law, she presents Indian recipes which are adapted for modern living – quick to make and healthy to consume. She has a personal preference for unsaturated fats over the traditional ghee (clarified butter) apart from when cooking basmati pulao dishes where it is essential to enhancing the flavour of the fragrant Indian rice – there is no compromise for flavour.

The class begins with an introduction to the spices used on a daily basis and kept in the Indian spice box – both whole and ground. We heard tips for how to make your own garam masala, as most home cooks still create their own, and uses for chaat masala (its great on slices papaya) and there was plenty of hearty discussion about ingredients.

I came across many unknown ingredients such as pomegranate seed powder used in a pomegranate raita, big cardamom pods and the beautiful pink whole mace flowers, which I have only seen ground. The spices look and smell very different to what you can get in the UK. The cinnamon is dark and earthy, and looks like the tree bark that it is!

Over the space of 3 hours, Jyoti demonstrates how quick and easy each dish is to make running through a catalogue of recipes including - Spinach soup, green chutney, vegetable pakoras, aloo gobi, dry chicken rogan josh, yellow dal, butter paneer, pulao, finishing with kheer for desert.

As is traditional in her native India our tutor learnt to cook as a newlywed living with her in-laws, solely through hands on experience. Consequently, recipes are quite loose, and when we ask how long to cook dal for, or how much ground coriander to use in a recipe she responds with “just as much as you like”. This is ingrained experience and intuitive cooking which often puts novice spice users on edge. But Jyoti encourages us to also be intuitive and instills the confidence to spice our cooking to our taste when we get home. This is why every meal in every Indian home tastes different.

Lunch spread across the table, each dish tasting lightly spiced and truly satisfying. The spinach leaf pakoras dipped in pungent coriander green chutney was delicate and more-ish, the nourishing pulao rice a meal in itself, whilst the easy to make butter paneer tastes so good I planned to make it for supper.

Whilst I have cooked from many Indian recipes home and even more since my arrival in Delhi, learning directly from a cook who makes such dishes with intuition, ease and passion has dispelled much of the mystery of north Indian meals. But, at the same time this delicate, intricate and immensely varied cuisine has truly got under my skin and I have sinking suspicion that my journey on this spice route is only just beginning. I have a Gourmet Desire for more.

...and there will be more about this class which included purchasing our spices and some of the adapted recipes I have been cooking since.

**Photo courtesy of The Perfect Click until I get round to photographing my own

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