CHEESE PLATE
SAY
CHEESE!
This month, we explore paneer and
how to use it in your home cooking.
Brown’s Notebook:
Paneer Barfi
Ingredients
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200 grams sweetened
condensed milk
100 grams Brown’s
Paneer
125 mL Brown’s
Mascarpone
1 tsp rose water
a pinch of saffron
½ tsp cardamom powder
12 shelled pistachios
12 shelled almonds
Method
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18.
Soak nuts in boiling water
for 30 minutes. Peel skins
and chop nuts finely.
Grate paneer.
Heat condensed milk,
mascarpone and paneer,
stirring constantly until it
clumps and comes from
the sides approximately
10 minutes.
Add saffron and
cardamom and stir a
further 2 minutes
Remove from heat and
mix through rose water.
Grease mould with ghee,
and pour in mixture.
Let cool, cut into desired
shapes or roll into balls,
sprinkle with nuts.
Enjoy immediately or
refrigerate for later.
Fun Fact:
The origins of Paneer are not as
commonly assumed in India. The
soft cheese came instead to the
Indian subcontinent through the
Turks and the Persians who used to
carry milk in containers made out of
the stomachs of sheep, cows and at
times camels. Once in these containers, the milk solids would separate
from the watery part because of
the rennet that was present in the
stomach lining. The method that is
used nowadays, which involves using
lemon juice to curdle the milk, was
introduced by the Portuguese.
We started making paneer about
4 years ago. Like most of our
cheeses, it came to life because
we wanted paneer for our
home kitchen but didn’t have a
grandmother around to to show
us how.
Unlike other cheeses which
use rennet for coagulation,
its preparation includes heat
coagulation of milk by adding
either citric acid, vinegar, lemon
juice or curd. To find out how to
make Paneer, we approached an
amazing Indian chef who was at
the time visiting Ole Sereni to
conduct training workshops. We
did not speak the same language but in the end communicated through making cheese; it
was great fun.
The challenge with paneer is
that it is best eaten fresh on the
same day it is made. Most Indian
families will make it at home.
Making one that would survive
on the supermarket shelf is
more challenging. If you do buy
our paneer from the stores, you
can always soften it by soaking
in warm water for 10 minutes
before use. You can then pretend you made it! Our paneer is
made with part skim milk and is
therefore low fat. It is also one
of the only cheeses that does
not have any salt added so is
great for people with high blood
pressure.
I feel that Paneer is an underutilised cheese as people think
it can only be used for Indian
cooking. You can add it to pancakes to get some protein into
your kids or add it to eggs to
increase their nutritional value.