Cilantro & Red Chilli Paneer – Indian Cottage cheese Spiced with cilantro and red chilli

Hello Everyone !!!

In this recipe I am bringing you all a flavoured paneer . I have made this simple and humble paneer into a very delicious dish which can tickle your palate. I have flavoured this paneer with some cilantro & red chilli flakes and to balance the spice I have served it with a tangy peach chutney

For Peach chutney recipe , Click here

Paneer is a fresh cheese made from curdling milk using souring agents such as lemon juice , vinegar or sour curd . Then the curdled mixture is strained whey water is used as stock in curries . On this strained mixture some kind of weight is placed to make a block and then after the paneer is processed as required which is in block forms or in crumble form. I have always liked flavoured cheeses in my life , cheese is something which I can forever in my life. So when ingredients of week declared this weeks ingredient as Paneer I did want to make a flavoured paneer and change this humble ingredient into a star dish . I have made  this several time but I used to flavour only using red pepper and salt , this was the first time using cilantro and red chilli and it came out so well . You can serve this as an appetizer and trust me it will be your star dish 😉 . You can also play around with the flavours such as parsley , basil , oregano , black pepper , chopped garlic literally anything . 

Before I start writing about the recipe , I want to show you all my official photobomber LOL . His name is Simba and he just turned a year old today , naughty boy . So this is what happens here on a daily basis , whenever I am taking pictures for the blog he always wants to be a part of it , either by photobombing or trying to sniff . It has become really hard to keep him away from the shoot because he is too inquisitive :p . So what I have decided is to keep him in my pictures all the time , I hope my fans and followers wouldn’t mind about it . Let me know if you still like to see more pictures of Simba. Now let’s get into the recipe 😉

Preparation Time- 20 minutes 
Cooking Time – 20 minutes 
Serves- 3 to 4 
Author- Parvathy V Nair 

Ingredients 

Whole Milk or 3.25% milk – one litre 
Lemon Juice- From 1 1/2 lemon 
Whole Red chillies – 1 ( if using crushed chilli flakes then one teaspoon)
Cilantro- chopped 1/4 cup 
Salt- 1 1/2 teaspoons (reduce it if you don’t want it too salty)
Ice Cubes – a handful 

Method

1. Chop Cilantro and Red chillies , keep it aside. 

2. In a pan boil milk , make sure to stir it without burning the bottom . So you got to stay and stir till the milk boils rapidly . This process will take 10 to 15 minutes .

2. When the milk is boiling , reduce heat to medium and add the squeezed lemon juice to it . Stir lightly till the milk is curdles and the whey is separated with a slight greenish tinge . If the milk is not curdled yet you can add more lemon juice . 

3. Now turn off the heat add cilantro, red chillies and one teaspoon salt to it . Add some ice cubes as well , this will help to make a soft paneer 

4. Strain it using a cheesecloth or a muslin cloth . You can use the whey as a stock in curries because it will have a slight spice to it 

5. Stir in the rest half teaspoon salt in the paneer , you can skip it if you don’t want too much salt 

6. Keep a weight on top of the strained paneer in the cloth and keep it in fridge overnight , you will be getting a good block of flavoured paneer 

7. Cut it into squares and serve it with peach chutney