Paneer

[susruta]

Is paneer a common item in South Indian diets? Or is it mainly a North Indian ingredient?

[Geetha]

I think I may have an answer or two

There is a sweet dish called palkhova, nevermind the pronunciation .. means khoya which is a little bit different from paneer in that khoya is not so compact, and has to be drained to get paneer and not to mention pressed for a week(I think ?).

Now I am not sure as to who were the first makers of this preparation of palkhova whether it is known by just other names like petha(which has some other ingredients in it too), as I see it 'pal' means milk, 'khova' means the cheese.

So its your guess whether paneer is known or used in south or only in north, my guess is it is used by both our indians north and south..

But I do not know of a dish as in a curry for paneer used in south it may be but not known to me .

[scott123]

Geetha, the khoya I get from my grocer is milk that's been reduced to a solid and is rock hard. There's also a few recipes for khoya floating around that follow the same process - evaporating moisture from milk. Could khoya have different meanings in different parts of India?

From the context of a few gulab jamon recipes I've seen, Chhena is a loose, unpressed version of paneer (similar to ricotta).

[Milagai]

Geetha, the khoya I get from my grocer is milk that's been reduced to a solid and is rock hard. There's also a few recipes for khoya floating around that follow the same process - evaporating moisture from milk. Could khoya have different meanings in different parts of India?

From the context of a few gulab jamon recipes I've seen, Chhena is a loose, unpressed version of paneer (similar to ricotta).

←

n the south, like geetha said, khoa is used,

aka tharattipaal, which is the highly evaporated milk.

paneer is not widely used in the south.

khoa doesn't (to my knowledge) have different meanings

in different places in india.....

milagai

[Geetha]

I'm not so sure whatgoes into palkhova, but I think there a few of the recipes we have in India, many are so different from others that you wonder why they have been calledby same name.. yes I've been confused by this for long, I know that my husbands grandmom made the tharattaipal, and it used to be made from thick milk I think so, but my mother has been in North and I've learnt many of my recipes from her, or rather influenced by her assumptions. I remember the unremarkable salesman of khoya who used to come at odd number of times in a week and barter khoya. I used to remember asking what it is for and my mother would respond in various terms depending on her time constraints :-) mostly referring to things that are not too demanding of her in case I should ask of her to make one of these dishes, any way once I remember her telling me that khoya which I think is similar to ricotta cheese in texture needs to be hung on cheese cloth and then presssed to drain water(or that liquid whey ) and that would beused for the prep of paneer.

So the point here :-)) is to know that there are people who have different meanings of khoya and would not like to discount any of those views.. I'm one of those people lol!

[Geetha]

milagai does the thirattaipal as the name refers to being 'broken milk' or curdled , mean that the thick milk was later used for produce ricotta cheese like khoya. I think that is what it is, is there some other dish that used only thick milk I'm not remembering the one which uses only thick milk not curdled later on..

I think I am not in possesion of the recipe for thirattaipal so may be I should be excused for mentioning the above satatement on thirattai pal, I must ask some one..

[easternsun]

I lived in kerala for about six months. I took cooking classes for one hour everyday for about three months. I came across this thread so I will tell you one of the recipes I have...maybe it is not a southern dish

450 g paneer

50g cooked peas

5 onions

4 tomatoes

3 knobs of ginger

8 cloves of garlic

1 tsp fenegreek

1 tbsp cashews

1 tbsp raisins

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp tumeric

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tbsp garam masala

1/2 tsp black pepper

50 g ghee

1 cup milk (maybe a little more?) - WE USED MILK STRAIGHT FROM THE COW

coconut oil to fry paneer

1) julienne onion and tomato

2) dice ginger & garlic

3) drain & cut paneer into small pieces (cubes)

4) fry paneer until golden brown

5) add ghee to cheena chetty (cast iron wok) i dont think i spelled that correctly but that is how it sounds in malayalum

6) add raisins and cashews and cook for onE minute

7) add 1&2, cook until veg is soft and liquid is absorbed

8) add all the spices, mix well

9) add paneer & peas

10) add milk, mix well

11) cook for five minutes

serve with rice (keralan) or chapati

is this south indian?

i ask because once i left kerala, i never ate the same food in the north... i really noticed huge difference in things like the rice, that everything wasnt cooked in coconut oil and the difference in the daal. i never saw tandoori or naan in the south either.

i absolutely love paneer!

paneer butter masala, palek paneer....oooh paneer

[Peppertrail]

Easternsun:

This paneer recipe sounds good, but it is not a typical Kerala dish. In fact paneer is not a trditional ingredient in South India. We ferment milk to make yogurt, butter/ghee and buttermilk. Same goes for tandoori dishes. But today many restaurants all over south India also serve dishes from other parts of India. In Kerala people often prefer barboiled or converted rice. The populr basmati rice is not a converted rice.

Ammini

[Geeta]

Is paneer a common item in South Indian diets? Or is it mainly a North Indian ingredient?

←

I think that paneer was used mainly in Punjabi and mughlai cuisine. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, paneer was never a traditional ingredient in our household. It was mostly a fancy ingredient that was used when entertaining on special occasions.

I searched the web and came across FAO (UN) website which is quite comprehensive.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/t0251e/T0251E05.htm#ch7.5.1

http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/t0251e/T0251E00.htm#TOC

[Kouign Aman]

Paneer now available at Costco. I took this picture last week.

[Jenni]

Trust me that packaged paneer is not that good...very tough and not as good a taste as homemeade. Since all paneer requires is milk and either yoghurt, lemon juice or even vinegar, it is much better to make at home.

[Ashen]

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to make it homemade as well. Same basic recipe without pressing essentially gives you homemade ricotta. Bonus.

[Jenni]

Actually ricotta is made of whey. The soft unpressed paneer is called chhena.

[Ashen]

yep, that is why I said essentially. I have seen many italian restuarants on Triple D that make it this way , but call it fresh made ricotta. Technically not true, but it can be used just like it, so no harm no foul.

Edited May 2, 2012 by Ashen (log)