Cottage cheese or chenna is one of the core ingredients of Indian cuisine. In the eastern part of India cottage cheese is mostly used for desserts. But there is a wide range of savory preparations which require cottage cheese as core ingredients.
For me there is another very good reason for cherishing cottage cheese. Recently I’ve learnt baking and it has become my latest hobby. And baking can’t be done without from cheese. Be it sweet or savory dish. There is a huge range of cheese available in the market. Cream cheese, mozzarella, parmesean, cottage, ricotta, cheddar, feta goshh the list is real big!!
But in India it’s a real hard job to find a good quality cheese. In my place only 2 cheeses are easily available; processed cheese slice/bar and mozzarella. And you have to manage your recipes with these two only. Sometimes it works just okay (just okay, all right!!) if you are using mozzarella instead of parmesan for some baking preparations. But if you have to use cream cheese for some dessert you simply have to ignore the entire recipe as if you didn’t see it at all!!! No matter how much crave you are building up for that particular dish.
And if you are baking lover just like me, all you can do is curse store keepers (as if that makes sense at all). After suffering such problems I decided to find out some alternatives for it. And look what I got finally: Cottage cheese. It is easily available in stores. If not you can make it quickly at home it will take only few mins from your busy schedule. And the Best part is it is lower in fat than any cream cheese.
Now on I’ll be using only and only Cottage cheese and will start over with all those recipes I’ve bookmarked before. Check out the recipe of Cottage cheese or Chenna if you are still looking for it.
Preparation Time: 0 mins
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Resting Time: 30 mins
Resting Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 40 mins
Yield: 200g-220g of cottage cheese
Ingredients for Chenna or Cottage Cheese:
Skimmed milk (fat free): 1 liter. (See Tips)
Lemon juice: 1 tbsp + 1 tsp (if it won’t give you satisfactory result add more juice)
Ice cubes: 10-12
Ice cubes: 10-12
Preparation:
Boil the milk in a large heavy bottomed pan.
Once it starts boiling, let it boil for few mins and then switch off the flame. Don’t touch the pan. Wait for few more mins until a layer of cream is formed on the top of the milk. Remove it and put the pan back on medium-high flame.
Once it starts boiling turn off the flame and pour the lemon juice little by little.
Once you notice the milk is curdling stop adding juice.
Wait for few mins to curdle the entire milk. By this time you will notice whey has separated completely. Remove the pan from heat and add the ice cubes. It will prevent cottage cheese from over cooking which can produce hard textured cheese.
Prepare a colander with muslin in the sink (a large piece from any thin cotton garments will work fine here). Or arrange a lager vessel than the colander to discard the whey and reserve the chenna or cottage cheese.
Pour the chenna or cottage cheese with whey in the colander.
There is no need keep it under running water as we want to reserve the aroma of lemon and use ice cubes instead of water. Don’t get tempted to touch it. It is too hot now.
Squeeze out the water from chenna or cottage cheeseas much as possible and hang it somewhere just above it sink for 30-45 mins. You can hang anywhere you want but I prefer to keep it near sink to avoid extra mess.
Don’t keep it hanged for more than 45 mins. It will make the chenna or cottage cheese too dry and hard to handle. The chenna or cottage cheese should be dry but moist.
Now use your cottage cheese as you please. Store it in an air tight container and refrigerate for up to one week.
Enjoy!!!
Useful post, great recipes too. Just to add, the whey need not be discarded as it contains protein, vitamins and minerals and is nutritious. Whey can be incorporated into dishes like soups or baked items. It is a flour conditioner and can be substituted for milk in most baked good recipes that require milk (bread, pancakes, muffins, etc.). Whey can also be added to breakfast smoothies for additional protein.
Whey is not recommended for lactose-intolerant individuals.
Hello Mrs. S, I'm so glad that you stopped by and shared those information. Hope to see you around 🙂
wow really, I have always been discarding the whey as I never knew its that useful. Thankyou so much for sharing this:)