What is paneer?

Paneer is made in a very different way than most cheeses. Neither bacteria nor enzymes are involved. You could say the cheese closely resembles fresh, pressed ricotta made from whole milk. The production process of paneer is almost identical to the process used for making ‘matten’ for mattentaarten.

Fresh milk is heated strongly and then citric acid is added. The valuable whey proteins, which are lost in most cheeses, remain in the cheese in this case. As a result, the cheese stays fairly moist and can’t be stored for too long.

At De Zuivelarij, we currently make paneer only upon customer demand. ForFoodbag, for example, the Belgian cooking box.

Photos: Foodbag

Paneer is usually cut into cubes for frying or baking. It often ends up in a tasty curry with lots of vegetables. The most famous preparation is”saag paneer“. That’s a recipe with spinach. In most dishes, feel free to swap paneer for Berloumi, or vice versa.