Two days back Amma was heating milk to set curds but unfortunately the milk curdled. I immediately separated the milk solids as paneer but was left with a lot of whey since this was Amul’s cow milk and the quantity of milk solids was relatively little.
I added a couple of tablespoons of curd to the whey and left it out in the open without refrigerating it. Today, the whey was nicely fermented. I used it to make Dhoklas in the morning and the whey enhanced the taste significantly. The recipe I used for the Dhokla is as follows-
Ingredients – 1.75 Cups of Besan, 0.25 Cup of roasted sooji (rava), salt to taste, Ginger-garlic paste or you can use just ginger juice if you don’t like garlic, 1 TBSP of turmeric, the fermented whey.
Method – I mixed all of the above first as a dry mixture and added the fermented whey slowly to make it into a batter. The consistency is a little thick, like you use for idli. I kept mixing it well using a flat ladle. Left it covered for about 15 minutes. Greased the idli plates in the meantime. Added 1/2 TSP of Eno salt as the fermented whey was already mixed in. Poured it into the idli plates and steamed them for 10 minutes.
I got 12 dhokla-idlis. I then cut them up to season them.
Seasoning used – mustard seeds, desiccated coconut (you can use fresh coconut as well), coriander leaves, sesame seeds, finely chopped green chillies.
The dhoklas tasted really nice !
In the evening for dinner, I made a OPOS Rava Upma and again instead of using water, I used the fermented whey. The Upma’s taste was certainly much better.
The whey that remains after you separate milk solids is very nutritious and a great source of vegetable protein. Never throw it out. You can make Mor Kuzhambu (the south Indian version of Kadhi), Kadhi, Upma, Dhokla etc and if nothing else, just add it to curd and make buttermilk out of it. Tastes just as good. Never throw it out though !!
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The dhokla sure looks tempting…. Recently we had the same issue of curdled milk … the paneer I stuffed as paneer parantha and the water we mixed with curd to make butter milk with a pinch of salt, zeera powder coriander leaves green chilli and a little ginger grated … that was amazing…. some people use that water to cook rice or knead chapati dough…. I agree throwing is not a good idea when you can benefit with so much nutrition .. happy cooking