Homemade paneer triumph

Homemade paneer, pictured with garden-fresh herbs

I have to be upfront. I don't want to disparage you from making paneer, that wonderful Indian cheese, but it did take me an hour stirring the milk as it boiled (granted I did make a double-batch). The 10-year-old owl-cat, old-soul that he is, said, "Was that really worth your time?" Perhaps because it had turned out well, I could give an optimistic answer, but at that moment it struck me that even had it not turned out well, I would still have said it was worth my time. That is a fine measure for a hobby or passion or addiction--whatever we are going to label this food-experiment thing.

Musings aside, this cheese was delicious. I made it to cube and turn into Saag Paneer (a.k.a. Palek Paneer), one of the best things Indian cuisine has done to spinach. It was heavenly for this purpose, but there are a number of other ways to eat it. (Many are listed in Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian.)

Before trying out this recipe, this video is a great introduction to making paneer. 

Homemade Paneer

adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian; Note: I doubled the recipe to good effect.

1/2 gallon (8 cups) whole milk

3-4 tablespoons white vinegar

0. Line a colander with cheesecloth. Place colander over large bowl.

1. Heat milk in large pot over medium heat.

2. Stir gently to keep milk from burning on the bottom of the pot. (I read nonstick may work well, but I don't have a large nonstick pan.)

3. Keep stirring. Read a cookbook while to wait. Or Crime and Punishment.

4. Keep stirring. Not vigorously, just a gentle motion along the bottom of the pot.

5. When the milk boils, stir in 3 tablespoons of vinegar. Stir. It will start to curdle. It will look like cottage cheese swimming in a yellow liquid. You may need to add another tablespoon of vinegar if it does not curdle.

6. Strain the curds through the colander. Keep the yellow liquid (whey) for making bread if you do that kind of thing.

7. Now you can use the curds as is or fully drain the curds, twist the cheesecloth so that you have a nice round bundle of cheese. 

8. Place your cheese bundle on a plate, cover with another plate, and weight it down with whatever will hold still. Small children are not good at this task. 5-lb dumbbells are as would be several of Owl's more hearty tomes of philosophy.

9. After 5-10 minutes you have paneer. 

Russian Grandma Homemade Sauerkraut = Good

Why eat sauerkraut?

• You won’t get scurvy.
• Your digestive system will be very happy.
• And some people even claim your love life will improve. (This was what got Owl interested.)

But these are all just ruses to get you to try sauerkraut—created by people who know a very good secret: good sauerkraut is goooood.

My friend E.D. learned how to make this sauerkraut from a Russian grandma. I must admit, I was skeptical at first. As much as I love a good kitchen experiment, leaving some cabbage in a jar for a month sounded like bacterial roulette. But it works. Read about the science behind it here.

Russian Grandma Sauerkraut

What is most innovative about this recipe is the method of putting the sauerkraut in a manageable size—a quart jar. It requires no large stones on top of vats of fermenting sauerkraut.


Prep time: 15 minutes

Wait time: 3-6 weeks, depending on temperature

1 head green cabbage
2 carrots
2 tablespoons SALT, plain SALT—not iodized salt—sea salt if you are fancy
Wide mouth quart jar

1. Chop cabbage and carrots—E.D. does this with a knife. I use a medium grating disk on my food processor for ease. It needs to be fairly fine to get it into a jar.

2. Put cabbage and carrots in a big old bowl and mix salt into it. Of course, you will be wanting to know if you have enough salt because that is what is keep the bad bacteria at bay. A good test for this is to taste the salted cabbage. If you want to spit it out, then you have enough.

3. Let sit for 10 minutes. At this point, it will release water if you squeeze it.

4. Grab handfuls of cabbage and knuckle them down into the jar, pressing on the cabbage to make sure there are no air bubbles and that the water remains above the cabbage.With the amounts listed, the sauerkraut should fill the jar.



5. Put a jar lid and ring on. Put the jar on a plate and place in a cooler place (60-70ish degrees). It will release more liquid in the first week, which is why you want to have a plate underneath.

6. Let sit without disturbing for 3-6 weeks. This is a step you will just have to learn by trial and error. I usually open mine at 3-4 weeks, and that is perfect for my taste. It will continue to develop its sour flavor the longer you let it sit. But once you open the jar, it is done with fermentation.

7. After opening, refrigerate. (Alternately, if you are like E.D., you can make 11 jars at once and store through the winter in a root cellar. I’m sure Russian Grandma would heartily approve.)