Serves: 5
Total Calories: 256

1/2 gallon lowfat or whole milk
2 cups plain yogurt, nonfat or any king, whisked until smooth, or 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, or a mixture of both
1 (2-foot square) piece of fine muslin or 4 layers of cheesecloth

1. Place the milk in a large, heavy saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring gently, over high heat. Before the milk boils and the bubbles spill over, mix in the yogurt or the lemon juice, and continue to stir until the milk curdles and separates into curds and whey, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.

2. Drape the muslin or cheesecloth over a large pan and pour the curdled milk over it. As you do this, the whey drains through the cloth into the pan, and the curdled paneer cheese remains in the cloth.

3. With the paneer cheese still inside it, pick up ,the cloth from the pan and tie the ends of the cloth around the kitchen faucet to drain, making sure that the cheese is a few inches above the bottom of the sink. Allow to drain 3 to 5 minutes.

4. Remove from the faucet and gently twist the cloth snugly around the cheese, then place the cheese between two salad-size plates (or any other flat surfaces), with the twisted cloth edges placed to one side, out of the way. Place a large pan of water on the top plate and let the cheese drain further, 10 to 12 minutes. (Do this close to the sink or within a baking pan, or you'll have a mess to clean up.)

5. Remove the pan of water from the paneer cheese (which, by now, should have compressed into a chunk), cut into desired shapes and sizes and use as needed. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator 4 to 5 days or freeze up to 4 months.

VARIATIONS: Paneer cheese can also be made with about 1/2 cup fresh or bottled lemon or lime juice, 3 to 4 tablespoons white or any other vinegar, or 1 quart buttermilk. Lemon juice and vinegar will yield about 6 1/2 ounces of paneer cheese, and the buttermilk will yield about 8 ounces. Paneer cheese can also be made with non-dairy soy milk (made from bean curd or tofu) or with a mixture of soy milk and milk. Make both these variations as you would with milk, and follow the directions above.

From "1,000 Indian Recipes." Copyright 2002 by Neelam Batra. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Nutritional Facts:

Serves: 5
Total Calories: 256
Calories from Fat: 72

More Recipes from the 1000 Indian Recipes Cookbook:
* Kitchen Basics
Almond and Poppy Seed Paste
Basic Cashew Paste
Basic Curry Paste with Onion
Basic Curry Paste without Onion
Basic Garlic Paste
Basic Ginger Paste
Basic Ginger and Green Chili Pepper Paste
Basic Ginger-Garlic Paste
Basic Onion Paste
Blanching Raw Nuts, Almonds
Blanching Raw Nuts, Pistachios
Boiled Onion Paste
Chile Pepper Paste
Coconut Milk
Crispy Chickpea Batter Drops
Crispy Fried Fresh Ginger
Crispy Fried Onions
Deep-frying, Indian Style
Dry-Roasting Spices, Nuts, and Flours
Fried Onion Paste
Goan Vindaloo Paste
Gujarati Green Paste
Homemade Yogurt
Hyderabadi Ginger-Garlic Paste
Indian Clarified Butter
Kerala Fried Onion Paste
Minty Green Curry Paste
Mughlai Curry Paste with Nuts
Paneer Cheese
Preparing Mangoes
Reconstituting Dried Wild Mushrooms
Roasted Garlic Paste
Roasting and Grilling Vegetables
Shelling a Coconut
Slivering Blanched Nuts
Spicy Yellow Curry Paste
Sprouting Beans and Seeds
Tamarind Paste
Yogurt Cheese