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Delicious platter

Paneer’s weakness is the company it keeps during cooking

Protein packed Paneer is a source of protein

Paneer is a homemade Indian cottage cheese. It resembles tofu in colour, taste and feel. Ex-meat-eaters swear that paneer dishes are the closest vegetarian thing to chicken in taste and texture. Palak paneer, mutter paneer, paneer butter masala, pane er tikka masala, paneer pasanda, chilli paneer, paneer kofta, kadhai paneer and shahi paneer are dishes with iconic status for most restaurant-goers.

Paneer is surprisingly easy to make, which perhaps explains some of its popularity with homemakers and chefs. After curdling hot milk with some lemon juice or vinegar, the whey is drained and the curd is pressed dry and cut into firm blocks. Softer varieties of paneer go into the making of sweets like rasogolla. The cheese does not require maturing. It has a short lifespan: refrigerated paneer stays for five days while frozen paneer stays fresh for a month. Paneer is nutritious, and not too high in calories. The calorie count depends on whether whole milk or skimmed milk goes into the making of paneer. It also depends on the whether the milk is from a cow or a buffalo – typically, buffalo milk is creamier and higher in calories.

Hundred grams of paneer contains 100-160 calorie. This is not a high number: many dried legumes contain more calories. Rajmah, for example, contains 335 calorie per 100 gm. Paneer is rich in protein: 100 gm contains around 12-14 gm of first-class protein comparable with the protein in egg white and meat. Fat forms only 5 gm out of a 100 gm block of paneer, but it is predominantly saturated fat.

Paneer’s weakness is the company it keeps during cooking. As with the healthful potato, butter, ghee and large amounts of oil tend to make paneer dishes fattening. Low-cal paneer recipes are not very popular but worth trying out because very few vegetarian foods contain the high-quality protein that paneer does.

RAJIV. M

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