Apple paneer delight

The recipe is very straight-forward. You boil and reduce the milk, sweeten it and cook the paneer in this milk. Meanwhile, grated sweet apples are cooked separately and cooled. This is then mixed with the slightly cooled kheer mixture and you get delicious apple-paneer delight

                                                                                                    

Preparation Time: 15 minutes                              

Cooking Time: 45 minutes.                

Serves: 4-6

Health Meter:

• One apple has 5 grams of fiber. They’re also fat, sodium and cholesterol free. 
• Don’t peel your apple! Two-thirds of the fiber and many of the antioxidants are found in the apple peel.

Did you know?

• Apples are a member of the rose family, along with pears, peaches, plums and cherries.
• Fresh apples float because 25% of their volume is air (thank goodness, or none of us would have ever experienced bobbing for apples!).

Ingredients:

1. Red Apple: 1 (peeled and grated)

2. Milk: 1 litre

3. Cottage Cheese/ Paneer: 1 cup (approximately prepared from 1 litre of milk)

4. Saffron strands: a few

5. MTR Badam Drink Mix: 3 tbs (optional)

6. Cardamom powder/ Elaichi: a pinch

7. Slivered almonds

8. Sugar: 6 tbs or as per taste 

Method:

1. Prepare fresh cottage cheese/ paneer at home by curdling milk with curd/lemon juice. This will be very soft so will give a better texture to the dessert.
2. Wash the paneer well before hanging to let out any tangy extract from lemon juice or curd. 
3. Hang it in a muslin cloth or keep in a sieve for an hour to let the excess water run out.  
4. On the other hand, keep milk for boiling in a thick bottomed pan. Simmer it and keep stirring till it reduces to half. 
5. Add MTR Badam Drink mix, saffron strands and cardamom powder and sugar to it. 
6. Take the grated apple and add half a cup of milk to it. Boil/ Microwave this separately to make sure the whole milk does not get curdled because some apples are sour and can cause curdling. 
7. If the milk does not curdle on boiling/microwaving, add this to the flavored milk followed by the fresh crushed paneer and take a boil. 
8. If you see the milk curdling on adding apple, keep this separate.
9. Add paneer to the flavored milk then and take a boil/ microwave for 3 minutes. At last add the boiled/microwaved apples when the milk cools down. This will avoid curdling of the flavored milk.
10. Let it cool and then refrigerate for 2-4 hrs or overnight.
11. Garnish with almonds, saffron strands and enjoy the apply-cheesy flavor. 

Suggestions:

1. While reducing the milk to half, be careful that it does not stick to the bottom.
2. Instead of boiling on a gas stove, you could actually prepare the whole thing in a microwave, but be sure to use a really big bowl to avoid any kind of spilling while boiling. 
3. It's always better to use the sweet red apples or the Fuji ones. The sour ones will spoil the taste.
4. If the flavored milk curdles even after all your efforts (chances are less than 1 %), don't panic; it's nothing else but cottage cheese/paneer which can still be used creatively.
5. You can variate the texture by addition of milk. If you want it slightly runny, add more milk and if you want it thick and granular, add more of paneer.