Well how do you ?

It seems a few ' un sharp ' people on here are feeling the need to poke fun at a blog i may choose to write.
To do this i need to know how of course.

Do i do this via a thread i've done or seperate.?

Without sounding critical (I hope I'm not), I'm genuinely amazed at how much people drink of a school night evening. AA 'categorise' alcoholism as when the use/consumption/mis-use of alcohol has a detrimental effect on your life. Knowing a few, including recovered alcoholics by one means or another, I would say that's a good generic catch-all. I'm also wondering if there may be some medical 'test' that may indicate any possible degree of damage that you may or may not have endured, ie. liver function test for example. Though I don't know how you could access that.

My best friend stopped drinking when he realised that he needed 12 cans a night just to get to sleep!!!

My initial one isn't really a NYR, it was just something I fancied doing next year. Basically come January 1st I shall be mostly giving up alcohol for as long as possible (goal is the whole of the year), with the exception of certain special occasions where, if I so choose, I shall have a glass of something.

Pax,
I can't claim 50 years of experience but have been making paneer since I was 16. I always use full-fat milk (Gold top if at all possible) as it gives the best yield. I have successfully used semi-skimmed milk but have never got skimmed to work. I also use citric acid solution (1 teaspoon in a small glass of water) as the curd-initiator. It tends to give a better yield than other acids but because it is getting harder to get hold of (Boots no longer sell it) I tend to use lemon juice more often now but find I need more.

I bring the milk up to the boil and then let it cool - I have found that boiling milk tends to give large curds as does stronger acid. The test I use is if I can keep a finger (clean) in the milk for 5 seconds then it is at about the right temperature.

I normally decant pretty soon after adding the acid but I know my mother used to let it stay on the heat for a couple of minutes before decanting.

Decant into butter muslin draped over the colander and gather the ends of the muslin into a bag containing the curds. If you collect the whey you can try re-heating and adding more acid which might give you a small amount of micro curds but frankly, that is more trouble than it is worth. You can also use the whey with a little baking powder and whole meal flour to make a dough. Make patties and then deep fry them - v god with channa masala.

Drain the curds for 4hrs by hanging the muslin bag and then press with large weight at least overnight. This should give you a fairly compact and medium to large curd. Curd size appears to be dictated by acid strength and milk temperature - although if the milk is too cold you will get no curd at all.

After it has drained refrigerate (wrapped in clean muslin).

As to cooking:
Shallow fry three fistfuls of finely chopped onion in more butter or ghee than you think you will need (?2 tbsp) in a frying pan. When the onions are transparent add half to three-quarter of a teaspoon of turmeric and salt to taste. Cook the turmeric onion mix for a couple of minutes, add three handfuls of cheese (crumbled or diced), on red chilli sliced into rings (seeds, middle and all) and a fistful of coriander. Keeping the heat high keep stirring. The cheese will soften - break it down as you stir you are looking for the white to turn yellow and the first bits of cheese just start to go crunchy/golden brown at the edges.

Garnish wih more coriander and serve with either paratha or wrapped in a tortilla with a bit of tabasco for breakfast.