paneer bhurji recipe using homemade paneer
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Serves: 3
Ingredients
For paneer:
  • Full fat milk - 4 cups or 1 litre
  • Curd - ½ cup
For paneer bhurji:
To Temper:
  • Coconut oil - 2 tsp
  • Cumin seeds/Jeeragam - ¼ tsp heaped
  • Curry leaves - few
Base:
  • Onion - 1
  • Tomato - 1
  • Capsicum - 1
Spice powders:
  • Turmeric powder - ¼ tsp
  • Chilli powder - 1 tsp(adults) or ½ tsp(kids) or ¼ tsp(toddlers)
  • Garam masala - ¼ tsp (optional)
  • Salt - ½ tsp or as required
To garnish:
  • Coriander leaves - few
  • Kasoori Methi - 1 tsp
Instructions
How to make homemade paneer ?
  1. Boil 1 litre full fat milk. Once it rises up, reduce the flame, add a ladle and give a stir so that froth goes down.
  2. Add ½ cup curd(or ¼ cup more faster curdling) and let the stove be in medium flame. Stir now and then. Shortly, the milk will start to curdle as in the pics.
  3. Keep stirring and at one stage, the cottage cheese and whey water will be completely separated. The water would have changed from milkish white to greyish(in pasteurized milk as in the pic) or pale yellowish(in case of fresh cow milk). Switch off the stove at this stage.
  4. Place a cheese cloth or any cotton cloth over a bowl(if you want to save the whey water) or over a colander inside the kitchen sink. Pour the stuff over the cloth so that whey drains down and paneer gets collected in the cloth. Wash the paneer with fresh water to wash away any milk or curd smell.
  5. Then, collect the corners of the cloth and fold together like a potli. Now, squeeze away the water in it. Do not squeeze till last drop as it might leave the paneer so dry. If you leave more water, paneer will become sticky. Squeeze gently and let there be moisture in it.
  6. Open the cloth and transfer the paneer to a bowl. Just crumble with fingers to break the clusters. Yields 1.5 cup paneer. Fresh and soft homemade paneer is ready to make paneer bhurji.
How to make paneer bhurji ?
  1. Chop onion, tomato and capsicum , each one. Add 1 or 2 tsp of coconut oil to dry pan and once hot add ¼ tsp cumin seeds/jeera.
  2. Once crackled, add chopped onions and few curry leaves with lil salt. Fry till onions turn translucent.
  3. Add chopped tomatoes and fry till oil oozes out. Then add chopped capsicum.
  4. Fry for 5 mins in medium flame and then add ¼ tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp chilli powder, ¼ tsp garam masala(optional), ½ tsp salt. Saute for a minute.
  5. Then add paneer and just saute for 2 mins to blend well with masala. Add crushed kasoori methi and give a quick mix. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.
Notes
1.Use homemade paneer immediately or refrigerate and use it within 5 days.
2.After adding paneer, do not cook for more than 2 mins. Else, paneer might harden.
3.For reheating, steam in a bowl inside idli maker or cooker with water in the base.
Recipe by My Healthy Kiddo at https://www.myhealthykiddo.com/paneer-bhurji-recipe/