Paneer

Makes approximately 250g

My husband loves cheese, as do I, but he loves it so much he wrote a book about it. His family love reciting the story of him leaving a family wedding with a wheel of cheese tucked under his arm as he made his way back to his hotel room.

A family get together always involves a cheeseboard but we hosted the latest celebration and decided we’d also have a cheese dish as part of the main course, a saag paneer to accompany a chicken curry.

Whilst paneer is readily available from the supermarket, it’s easy to make your own and takes only two ingredients and just an hour (during most of which you don’t actually have to do anything) and you’ll have your own homemade batch, plus the satisfaction of knowing you’ve made your own cheese!

• Ingredients:
• 2 litres whole milk
• Juice of 1 lemon

Step 1: Heat the milk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan until it begins to froth and boil (be careful though as a moment too long and the milk will cascade out of your pan; I am speaking from experience!) then lower the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Continue to stir until the milk curdles and separates into the lumpy curds and watery whey.

Step 2: Line a large sieve with a muslin or cheesecloth and place over a pan or large bowl. Carefully pour the curdled milk through, so the curds remain. Run some cold water through the curds to rinse off any whey.

Step 3: Tie the curds in the cloth to hang from the tap for 10 minutes to allow excess whey to drip from it.

Step 4: Remove the cloth-tied curds from the tap and place on a plate, with a heavy object (I used the same milk pan filled with water) on top for 40 minutes. By this time the curds should be set and your paneer ready to use.

Store in the fridge, and any remaining cheese can be frozen.