11 recipes that use citric acid, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Cream cheese, takes 25 minutes. It is most often cooked with sugar, full-fat milk and gram flour.
Run out of citric acid? Juice of 1 lemon or 1 tbsp white vinegar per tsp.
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Home-made paneer is softer and creamier than shop-bought, and it takes just milk and a little citric acid. Hot milk is curdled, the whey drained off and the curds pressed into a block that slices cleanly into cubes. Use it in curries such as paneer makhani and mutter paneer, in parathas or in tikka.
A soft, spreadable fresh cheese made the same way as paneer, but blended until creamy instead of pressed. Spread it on crackers, or use it in dips, cheesecakes and the eggless mayonnaise.
Bhabhri are long, thin strips of plain and gram flour dough, fried until crisp and tossed straight away in a mix of powdered sugar, chilli, citric acid and salt. They are sweet, tangy and lightly spicy at once, and a favourite tea-time nasta. Pounding the dough makes it lighter in colour and gives the strips their crisp, flaky bite. They keep for weeks in an air-tight container.
Bhusu is a festive farsan mix: crunchy fried pulses and lentils, three kinds of sev, tum tum, bundi, sakarpada cubes, puffed rice, cashews and peanuts, all tossed in a sweet, sour and spicy seasoning. It makes a large batch for Diwali and keeps for weeks in air-tight tins. It's a project spread over a few days, because the pulses need soaking first. Make the jini sev, jadi sev, tum tum and sakarpada from their own recipes in this section.
Instant dhokri are soft, spongy steamed squares of gram flour and dhokra flour, raised in minutes with fruit salt instead of an overnight ferment. They're finished with a crackling tempering of mustard seeds, sesame and curry leaves. Serve with green and red chutneys. To make dhokra flour, coarsely grind 1 cup long-grain rice with 1 cup bengal gram lentils (chana dal).
Malai sandwich is a Bengali-style sweet of soft paneer squares poached in rose syrup, soaked overnight, then split and filled with warm, sweetened mawa (khoya). They're spongy, juicy and creamy. Serve them chilled in small paper cases; the recipe makes 20.
Kesar paneer kali are oval sweets of soft home-made paneer coloured with saffron, poached in light rose syrup and soaked overnight, then split and filled with cherries and pistachio. They're spongy, juicy and delicately floral. Serve them chilled; the book's photo shows them topped with a swirl of whipped cream too.
Ras malai is a much-loved Bengali sweet now made all over India: soft discs of fresh paneer poached in light syrup, then soaked in milk boiled down until rich and creamy and flavoured with saffron. Served chilled, scattered with almonds, pistachios and cardamom. Makes about 50 small pieces.
Rasgulla are soft, spongy balls of fresh paneer cooked in boiling syrup until they swell, then served cold in light rose-scented syrup. This version hides a little sugar lump (sakar) in the centre of each ball. Makes 20; serve chilled after a meal.
The fasting-day version of Gujarati chevdo: fine strips and round crisps of fried potato tossed with fried peanuts, cashews, green chillies, curry leaves and coriander, and seasoned with black pepper, sugar, salt and a touch of citric acid. It's crunchy, peppery, sweet and tangy. Make a big batch, store it airtight and serve it on fasting days with tea. Makes about 1 kg.
Thin potato crisps blanched in salted water with citric acid and dried in the sun, a traditional store-cupboard standby for fasting days. Fried in seconds when needed, they puff up light, crisp and white. Sprinkle with black pepper or chilli powder. Drying takes 1–2 days of strong sun.
