I’m currently having a preoccupation with making milk by-products. Since I’ve started making my own yogurt I’ve been left with an excess of whey on my hands. I looked around the internet to see what was the best way to use the leftover whey. I found a few ways to use the way:
1. Drink it.
2. Feed it to someone’s dog or cat.
3. Make your own whey powder.
4. Use it in curry, or soup.
5. Bake bread.
6. Make ricotta.
7. Make paneer!
I chose #5, especially since I'm not exactly a huge fan of ricotta. Paneer, I had heard was pretty easy to make. Again my first batch went a bit awry, but my second batch went off without a hitch!
First you start with some whey (about 1/4-1/2 cup) and about a liter of milk (preferably full fat).
Bring the milk up to boil and turn off the heat, immediately add your whey (or other curdling agent like lemon juice). The curds should separate from the whey. If not, stir in more whey.
It looks totally funky, but don’t worry! Strain out the curds from the whey by lining a colander with cheesecloth and squeezing out as much water as possible. Quickly run the curds under cold water, and it’s now time to press the paneer.
I used my cast iron pan with a brick wrapped in newspaper to press my paneer. I let it stand for about an hour and a half. Soak the paneer in cold water in the fridge overnight.
I made saag paneer the next day. I would say double the recipe for the amount of paneer that you get from the liter of milk. I found that I had way more paneer than saag.
