Instant Pot Cottage Cheese
Ingredients:
1 Gallon Whole Milk or Heavy Cream 2% or 1%
2/3 cup Distilled Vinegar or Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1/2 cup Heavy Cream or Half & Half more as needed
Directions:
Pour milk into Instant Pot cooking pot and cover with Lid. Push the Yogurt button and then the Adjust button. The display should read “Boil.” During the Boil cycle, remove the lid and whisk the milk a couple of times during the cycle.
When Beep sounds, remove lid and take temperature. Anywhere from 170-180 degrees is fine.
Slowly pour in the lemon juice or vinegar and gently move around the milk. It will begin to look curdled. Turn off the Instant Pot. Cover the milk with the Lid and let sit for at least 30 minutes.
Add salt to the cream and whisk. Set aside.
Pour the Cottage Cheese into a Strainer Basket lined with butter muslin, sitting inside of a Cooking Pot or other device to drain.
Remove Strainer Basket to sink and run a slow stream of cool water over the Strainer Basket to remove excess Vinegar.
Place Cottage Cheese into bowl. Gently pour in the cream with the salt and incorporate. Refrigerate and enjoy.
Indian Paneer
Follow the exact same instructions for Cottage Cheese, but don’t add any cream or salt.
Instead of placing the cottage cheese into a bowl after draining out the liquid, gather the ends of the butter muslin and twist. Squeeze out as much liquid with your hands as you can. The cheese will form into a ball. Shape the cheese into a block. Place block of cheese into Tofu/Paneer Press and lock into position. Let sit in the refrigerator for at least one hour, so that more of the moisture will be removed. The farmer cheese/paneer can then be cut into pieces.
