I know most of you will raise your eyebrow looking at the title. After all, you know of my fiascoes with Cooking 1 & 2. In spite of many years of cooking (palatable food), I still am uninitiated and clueless about a lot of cooking skills.
It so happened that nearly a litre of milk had survived near the expiration date and something needed to be done to finish it fast. I keep getting pearls of wisdom from friends who are excellent cooks and know all the tricks to make excellent food. One of them is my eldest sis and she suggested that I make Cottage Cheese (Paneer) from the milk.
Here are the tips for the Recipe (For Disaster):
1) Firstly never ever go for suggestions from great cooks. My sister made it sound as if it's a 'game for my left hand'. I, in the heat of the moment actually started believing this nonsense and took up the challenge.
2) Always use a thick saucepan which is deep enough to hold the milk and leave an inch or two of empty space for the milk to boil. I paid a heavy price for over confidence and being a smart-ass by choosing a small pan. The aftermath was not pretty at all.
3) My sister had told me to squeeze some lemon in the boiling milk for it to curdle. Always make sure is it 'some lemon' or 'a lemon'. These doubts could kill your recipe.
4) Have patience, everything takes its own time. Cursing and giving black looks to the task at hand will not make the dish hasten and appear magically.
5) Do not assume that all muslin cloths/cheese cloths are of the same density. You use them to separate the curdled cheese from the whey (watery liquid). My muslin cloth was stubborn enough to retain the whey and the struggle to separate the cheese from the whey would have reminded one of Moses parting the Read sea.
After sweating buckets and being on tenterhooks, finally I was able to coax the milk to curdle and Voilà.....Folks, here is my Cottage Cheese.
After sweating buckets and being on tenterhooks, finally I was able to coax the milk to curdle and Voilà.....Folks, here is my Cottage Cheese.
All throughout the process, I had sudden urges to dump the whole mess in the sink and get it over with. But my pride stood in the way, as I had boasted to hubs about expanding my culinary skills. I even had evil thoughts of opening the store bought Cottage cheese and grating it and presenting it proudly to hubs. In the end Thomas Edison inspired me to finish the task just as he had struggled to make a light bulb work.
"Thomas Edison, said, "I have not failed 10,000 times. I have
successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.
Ha! Ha!!! Not bad. I thought you would have learned by now not to totally believe when dear Jo says some dish/art work/activity is very easy. Multiply it by 10 and that's the reality of its ease ;)