Matar Panir

Serves about 4 people as a main side vegetable dish

This is a mild cheese dish from eastern India, frequently served in Indian restaurants. You can buy the panir (a soft, un-ripened cream cheese), but it is much more fun to make it. For children, the chance to "make cheese" is very appealing. So be sure to get them to help!

For Panir

• 1-2 liters (1 bag) Milk (use whole milk)
• 1-2 tbsp. Lemon juice
• 1/3 cup Yoghurt [Optional]

Muslin or cheesecloth

For Matar Panir Dish

• 1 cup Panir, cut into ½ inch cubes
• ½ cup Ghee (clarified butter? melt the butter & skim off the milky ?gunk?)
• ½ tsp. Whey left over from making panir
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 2/3 cup Large onion, sliced
• 1½ cups Frozen peas
• ½ tsp. Paprika (mild)
• ½ tsp. Ground ginger
• ½ tsp. Garam masala (mix of cardamom, coriander, cloves, cumin, mace)

Directions for Panir

1. Place the milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly so that no skin forms.
2. After the milk has boiled a bit, remove from the heat and gradually add the lemon juice or yogurt (or a mixture of both). Stir all the time, until the milk has curdled completely. If after a few minutes the liquid is not fairly clear, then add more lemon juice to get the milk to completely curdle.
3. Cover and leave for 15 minutes to cool a bit.
4. Next strain through a muslin cloth (I use a cheesecloth placed inside of a colander) Squeeze well to extract all of the watery whey. (Save the whey for later). Now you have curds and whey. Is Miss Muffat and a spider nearby?
5. Next, form the curds into a slab less than 1 inch thick. Wrap it in a cloth, and put a weight on the top. 10 pounds is good. This squeezes out the whey and makes the panir firm. Leave it like this for 3 hours. Then refrigerate overnight.

Directions for Matar Panir Dish

1. Fry the panir cubes in the ghee until they are light brown. Remove from the ghee and soak them for 15 minutes in the whey and salt.
2. Fry the sliced onions in the ghee until golden brown. Remove them from the ghee at set aside.
3. In a pot, add the peas and water and bring them to a boil. Immediately remove them from the heat and drain them.
4. Add the onions, panir and spices to the pot with the peas and cook gently, siring carefully for about 5 minutes. If the dish seems to dry, you can add a bit of any leftover ghee.

Keywords: Indian, Vegetarian