Indian Cheese Base (Chhana)
Ingredients
- 4 cups whole milk
- ¼ cup lemon juice
Instructions
- In a large pot, bring milk to a boil, stirring occasionally. Once milk is boiling, add lemon juice, and stir. The cheese will begin to curdle. Continue to boil for 1 minute, then cover and turn off heat. Allow pot to rest about 10 minutes, or until the liquid (whey) is a clear yellow.
- Pour curds into cheesecloth-lined colander to drain. (If desired, the leftover liquid can be kept to make ricotta or for future curdling.) Rinse the newly created chhana with cold water to remove lemon flavor. Gather the ends of the cheesecloth together, and squeeze out excess liquid. Don’t go crazy, but do enough that it’s difficult to squeeze out more.
- Hang the cheesecloth over a sink for about 30 minutes to let any extra liquid drain.
Raj Chakraberti
Raj Chakraberti grew up in the Southern US (Tennessee, Alabama), and is of Indian ancestry. His interest in cooking grew after he moved to New York City in 2002. Being away from his Mom’s Indian homecooking resulted in furiously looking for ways to replicate the foods he grew up with. It was during this time he came to appreciate the books of Madhur Jaffrey and Chitrita Banerji among others. Raj has written for Alimentum Journal, a Literary food journal, Little India Magazine (NYC), Khabar (Atlanta), and India Abroad (NYC).
