Choco-paneer truffles

As soon as you as you read the name of the recipe you might be thinking Paneer(cottage cheese) and truffles!!!!.We all have tasted various savoury variations of paneer ,but this time I wanted to have some thing different may be this is the effect of watching master chef .....:)

My kids love truffles ,I think every one loves truffles ,the smooth melt in the mouth truffles are hard to resist with one .S was saying "Mom you haven't made truffles since long time ,please mom, make some this weekend."If a pickey eater demands some thing ,then  the demand must be met immediately right!!  ....right .

Since last week they had been on sweets in some or the other way .As they are in the exam mode I wanted some thing healthy and nourishing and they should never miss the taste of truffles ..:).After thinking of so many variations  ,finally jumped to the conclusion that this time I am going to try with paneer .This idea was inspired by the show band -baaja-buffet on food food channel.Paneer with nuts was served with chocolate fondue to the baaratis on the menu .

For this recipe home made paneer(cottage cheese) works better in fact I must say best ,As we have to incorporate the nuts in it ,store bought paneer is highly not recommended  in it .It stayed well in the fridge for 5 days may be it would stay more.... but it was clean bowled .I did not reveal the contents of the truffle  ,and kept them guessing ....Every one mistook it to chocolate .....!!!!

So go ahead and make the truffle with a Desi twist .............

Other paneer recipes are:

• Tandoori paneer tikka
• Mutter paneer

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups  / 500ml   milk (full fat)
• 2 -3 tbsp lemon juice
•  100 gms mix nuts
•  80 - 100 gms chocolate 
• a few drops almond essence (optional)

PROCEDURE

1. Bring the milk to rolling boil in a sauce pan .
2. Add the finely chopped mix nuts .
3. Switch of the flame and add lemon juice ,stir it gently once .
4. Now you can see the milk starts curdling and the whey(water) gets separated .
5. Place a muslin cloth in a colander and pour the mixture in it .
6. Gather the sides of the muslin cloth  and tie it with a kitchen rope or any string and hang it on the tap for a good 30 - 45 mints .
7. Press the muslin cloth with hand to remove the water if any .
8. Make balls of ping pong size of the paneer ,and place it in the fridge for 1 hrs .
9. To temper the chocolate, chop the chocolate  and divide it into 3; 1 ratio.
10. Take a microwave safe bowl  and put the larger part of chocolate in it and microwave for 30 secs .
11. Remove it and give a stir,and microwave for 15 secs again .
12. Again remove,mix and add the kept aside chopped chocolate,give a nice stir .
13. Microwave it for another 30 secs ,remove and stir it ,by now you can see a glossy melted chocolate .
14. Dip the paneer(cottage cheese) balls one by one in the chocolate and remove it  with a fork .
15. Place it on a parchment paper and place it in the fridge for 1 hr.
16. Your paneer choco truffles are ready ..  

NOTES

1. Do not add lemon juice more than 3 tbsp ,as it will turn the paneer sour.
2. Drain all the water by pressing with your hands ,as water will make  the paneer soggy ,as a result balls will not hold the shape.
3. Dip the balls as soon as you finish tempering the chocolate ,or else it will tend to set  .
4. I haven't used almond essence ,but after eating it my daughter suggested to have added it . 
5. You can use double boiler too to melt the chocolate .place a wide mouth bowl on a sauce pan with water and place it on the flame .
6. The water in the below sauce pan should not touch the above bowl .
7. Place the chocolate in the bowl and follow the rest instructions as above.

Yummily,







Linking this to ."Delectable Flavours Giveaway Event".