Paneer!

[a_travel_story]

So, it's been a long long time and many things have happened to me since I last updated. But, this past semester can pretty much be summed up with this picture:



And the sound: GRRSTRESSLOSSANGSTSHAKESPEARE!

Luckily, Spring Break finally came and I have been able to destress and get my life back on track. Thankfully. I don't think I could have handled much more stress before having some sort of screaming, running naked in the park type of breakdown. Things were just generally Not Good.

Let me say right now that I love Spring Break and the fact that it allows me to return home and say hello to everyone and everything that I love. It also let's me indulge in my family's secret love for marathons. Running marathons? HA! Never. For all of our faults, the one thing we Copeland's can do is enjoy the simple pleasure of mighty fine entertainment watched at length.

My dad introduced Twin Peaks to me when I was camped out at his place destressing earlier this week. It's now my favorite show of all time. Okay, maybe not of all time (I'll never forget you Veronica) but definitely from the early '90s.

Click to view

What's with all this t.v. jibber jabber? I have no idea but let's just say it's something that cannot be examined or explained, like my new found love for Special Agent Dale Cooper.



Okay, enough with my love for quirky entertainment that's long gone. On to the cheese.

I found this awesome little website a few weeks ago and decided that I would break up my Spring Break relaxation plans with some cheese making. Now, that website is quite pretty to look at with all of its European elegance and fancy pictures, but it is somewhat useless if you've never made your own cheese before. It's all suave guidance and no substance-- it's pretty empty in actual direction and caused much craziness on my side. But, my dad and I figured it out and made a pretty decent tutorial on making paneer. So, here you go:

How To Make Paneer (For Beginners Like Me!)

Ingredients:
1 Gallon Whole Milk
2 Lemons
Cheesecloth (or a nicely washed t-shirt)
Big ol' heavy-bottomed pot
Flavor (Important! Otherwise it's just hard milk. I used salt and garam masala)

And that's it! So simple. Let's do it!

Step 1: Empty milk into pot and add your flavoring.



Bring it slowly to a boil. This will take a while but then it will just JUMP out at you so keep an eye on it.

Step 2: Juice those lemons!



You're going to want about 6+ tablespoons of lemon juice to make that amount of milk curdle. My dad and I had to learn that the hard way because of our blind trust in the internet. Make sure you've got some extra juice on hand and don't be afraid to add more if it doesn't work out for you the first time.

Plus, my hands are cute. I won't hear otherwise, you!

Step 3: Watch out for the milk!



When milk boils, there's no stopping or controlling it as it doubles in size and bubbles over the top of the pot. That's why the bigger the pot, the better your chances are that you won't have a burnt milk disaster on your hands. Lesson learned.

Step 4: Lower heat and add lemon juice. Watch that baby curdle.



Unfortunately for us, we only saw baby curdles. How sad. One lemon was just not enough!



That's why it's important to have at least two lemons ready and more waiting in the wings if need be. Don't let it worry you if you've only got a few curds and a hell of a lot of whey because it just means you need to add more acid.

Step 5? I'm losing count. Enough of this. Anyway, next you need to stir like you have never stirred before.



I'm lucky my dad likes to encourage my food experiments and is always willing to lend a helping hand; and, the stirring doesn't take too long if you have enough lemon in there. But, since you don't want to add too much for fear of having lemon cheese, pour a little bit at a time and see where that gets you with your curdles.



Forcing milk to separate like this is equal parts gross and awesome.



You'll know you've reached the end when the whey (watery part) is completely obvious and no longer opaque.



And your curds will be freaking gigantic.

Next is the fun part: Separation!



Pour the curds and whey into the cheesecloth/non-dirty t-shirt. It's easiest to do this by placing the cloth first into a colander so all the whey can drain away into the sink and out into the Everglades or wherever it is that water goes.



Rinse the bundle out a bit to cool it down and then squeeze the cloth around the curds to make sure all the liquid has been forced out. We decided to let it hang over the sink by securing the curd ball to the faucet with rubber bands to really let it drain. Let it hang for about half an hour.



After all the hanging and the squeezing is done, dump out your curd ball onto a plate.



Place another plate on top and press down. This shapes the cheese and drains out the remaining whey.

Also, I got my hair cut very short when I first got back home. It could be boyish but I choose to look at it as making me look remarkably French. Making cheese adds to my Parisian flair. It's a win win situation.



Put the pressed cheese in the fridge and top with something heavy to (once again) press out the rest of the whey. Leave it in there for a few hours and presto! You now have yourself a nice block of Indian cheese.



You can do with it what you will at this point but I opted for making some saag paneer for dinner. It was delicious, and, as my dad told everyone at dinner, "extremely healthy! Look at all that spinach! And cheese! Christ, my daughter is really something, huh?" Oh Dad!

I cut up the block and fried up the cheese cubes. What is it about fried cheese that is so delicious?



Frying the paneer gives it a nice crispy outside and warm creamy inside. Now, this is what I call heaven.



Anyway, that was my first foray into cheese making. Will I do it again? Of course! It was definitely worth it and very fun to figure out how to do it on our own. There were a few moments of absolute "DISASTER!!! WHAT NEXT?!?" but now I know how to do it and will be able to persevere next time. And, like Mario said when I told him about my grand experiment, all I need to learn now is how to make wine and I'll be set for life.

Oh! And this is my dad's new cat. His name is Percy and he's some kind of Maine Coon hybrid. He's spooky and makes a "trilling" noise when he's sneaking up on you.



So scary.

Spring Break is almost over and I did absolutely no school work at all. And it was fabulous. Thank God I'm no longer in my extreme Gainesville stress mode. And! I signed up for UF in Salzburg!



There were a lot of reasons I wasn't going to go this summer but they all sorted themselves out right before the deadline. And now I'm in and will be in Europe this summer. I'm going to visit my brother in London before jetting off to Austria and my dreams of following in Julie Andrews twirling footsteps.