Tonight, to add something special to my Indian vegetable curry, I made my own paneer. Paneer is an Indian cheese and it is actually extremely simple to make. You just bring whole milk to a boil, add acid to separate the whey from the curds, and then drain through a cloth and press the cheese into shape (wrapped in cloth, using weights.) It has a very mild flavor and a texture similar to firm tofu. For curries, it is best to press the paneer well so that it will be firm enough to hold up to cooking. But, you can also skip the step of pressing and instead use the soft curds in a salad, perhaps with tomatoes and cucumber and a dusting of cumin. It takes a quart of milk to get a very small disk of cheese. For each quart, I use 1.5 tablespoons of white wine vinegar as the acid. I have also read that people use rice wine vinegar, lemon juice or even soured yogurt. Paneer is a nice change of pace from the usual proteins such as tofu, shrimp, etc. Plus, it feels really cool to make your own cheese!

Since today is winesday, I chose a gewurztraminer to go with my Indian dinner. Gewurztraminers are usually recommended for serving with Indian or Asian dishes because they have a spicy, floral quality that matches well with curries and other spicy dishes. The wine merchant at Pike & Western recommended a German gewurztraminer to me, Pfeffingen 2004 Spatlese. He told me that, even though it is a Spatlese which is late harvest and usually means sweet, this was one of the less sweet gewurztraminers out there and that it had enough acidity to match well with food. I’m not so sure. It was still a little too sweet for my tastes but I did like the strong floral aroma and spicy flavor. Next time, I will try one of our Washington gewurztraminers to see how they compare.