STOP Buying Paneer — My Father's Way to Make It Soft at Home

Beta, that hard squeaky block you keep buying? Paneer is just milk and one sour thing - soft, fresh and cheaper, made in the time it takes to boil milk. Here are 7 old tricks for soft homemade paneer that stays tender in the curry, the way my father's mother made it every morning. Get my father's whole kitchen - Nenek's Indian Kitchen: https://payhip.com/NenekSari My mother's Indonesian kitchen too:    / @cooktheindonesianway   THE 7 TRICKS (written out so you can keep them) - 1. Paneer is only TWO things - milk and one sour thing (lemon, vinegar, yogurt or saved whey). Heat the milk, add the acid, it splits into curds. That's cheese, in 10 minutes. 2. GENTLE heat, gentle hand - the reason yours was rubbery. Lower the heat the moment it splits and add the acid slowly. A fierce boil + a big slug of acid = tight, squeaky knots. 3. Rinse the curds, and KEEP THE WHEY. Rinsing washes off the sourness so it tastes of milk. The whey goes in your dough, your dal, or turns tomorrow's batch - nothing wasted. 4. Firmness is ONLY the pressing. Long and heavy (2-3 hrs) = firm cubes that hold. Short and light (20 min) = soft, melting paneer. Same curds - you decide. 5. Add paneer LATE, not early. It's already cooked - warm it through at the end (5 min). Boil it in the gravy 20 minutes and it goes hard and squeaky, the very thing we avoided. 6. Palak: blanch the spinach BRIGHT and brief, then purée. Cook it long and it turns grey and bitter - that's where sad canteen palak comes from, never the paneer. 7. One pot of milk = a dozen dishes: paneer butter masala, matar paneer, paneer tikka, or soft curds crumbled warm over a dal. Safety: milk boils over in one second - stand with it; let the hot whey cool before you handle the bundle; keep children back from the pot. CHAPTERS - (adjust to final render; keep 0:00 first) 0:00 You're buying the easiest thing in the kitchen 1:30 A quick word (my father's book - out now) 2:05 Trick 1 - Paneer is just milk + one sour thing 3:10 Trick 2 - Gentle heat, gentle hand (no rubber) 4:05 Trick 3 - Rinse the curds, keep the whey 4:55 Trick 4 - The pressing decides firmness 5:50 Trick 5 - Add paneer LATE so it stays soft 6:45 Trick 6 - Blanch spinach bright (palak) 7:35 Trick 7 - One batch, a dozen dishes 8:40 The honest words + a safety word 9:30 Who profits from the shop block 10:20 One pot of milk, a rich week 11:05 Your turn - change just two things Tell me your region - north, south, east, west? How does your family turn the milk? And be honest... were you carrying home the hard block, thinking paneer was beyond you? Subscribe - a new old-way recipe every week. Cook the Indian Way. #Paneer #HomemadePaneer #IndianFood #IndianCooking #PaneerRecipe #PalakPaneer #VegetarianIndian #HomeCooking #OldFashionedCooking #FacelessCooking