Desi and cheesy

From adding fresh Greek feta in salads to pairing wine with a light brie or camembert Indians are increasingly sniffing out ways to include cheese varieties from across the globe in their diet But cheesemakers and connoisseurs tell us that there is a host of indigenous varieties such as kalari and chhurpi from the Himalayas Bandel from Bengal or topli nu paneer in Parsi households and of course the ubiquitous paneer and chhenna that are waiting to be lapped up Ahead of National Cheese Day in the United States on June 4 four experts take us on a trail of some desi cheeses across IndiaIn Mumbai and GujaratCloser to home are the Parsi topli nu paneer and Surti paneer which food historian and Parsi caterer Kurush Dalal shares are quite similar ldquoThe main difference is that the topli cheese curd isnrsquot compressed itrsquos put in small salted tokris and allowed to gently lose its wheyTopli nu paneer by TambolyWhereas the Surti paneer is available in a variety of sizes and was primarily made by the Bohri communityrdquo he says Both Dalal and Parsi cheesemaker and home chef Delna Arzan Tamboly have fond memories of paneerwalas swinging by their neighbourhoods daily with large aluminium cans of cheese They share that topli nu paneer is made using a rennet that comprises either the choppedup insides of a chicken gizzard or a goatrsquos intestinesDelna Arzan TambolyTamboly whorsquos been using a vegetarian rennet made following her motherinlawrsquos recipe for over 15 years adds that the texture of topli nu paneer is delicate ldquoWe eat it just like that or with a dash of roasted cumin powder Some use it for salads It bears the markings of the topli Gujarati for basketrdquo she says adding that these baskets are getting harder to source in the city nowLooking eastBreach Candybased Mansi Jasani of The Cheese Collective informs us that a majority of indigenous cheeses in India originate from along the Himalayan range This includes chhurpi a popular cheese in Sikkim Nepal Bhutan and north Bengal thatrsquos made from cow or yakrsquos milkChhurpi Pic CourtesyWikimedia CommonsldquoThe hard chhurpi is chewy mountaineers munch on it and you get chhurpi sticks for dogs toordquo Trek down from the Himalayas in the East and you find Bandel cheese Now a major town in West Bengal Bandel was an erstwhile colony of the Portuguese who introduced the cheese ldquoThere is a smoked hard Bandel and a soft one The former has a heady smoky smell like yoursquore sitting next to someone who just smoked a pack of cigarettes It can be had on its own or crumbled on saladsrdquo she saysMansi JasaniAnother cheese from Bengal Dalal notes was brought along by the Jews and can be found at the iconic Kolkata confectionery Nahoumrsquos ldquoThey add it to their cheese samosasrdquo he recollectsFrom the ValleyNetherlandsborn Chris Zandee who runs Himalayan Cheese in Kashmir shares that kalari is a local cheese that you can find in both Jammu and in the ValleyTerming it ldquoIndian mozzarellardquo Zandee claims the cheese is indigenous to the Gujjar herders ldquoThe Jammu kalari is like a ball which is squeezed flat when you cook it The Kashmiri kalari includes a few more steps in the process and is shaped like an American pancakerdquo adds the Srinagar residentKalari made by Chris ZandeeOwing to its shape itrsquos also called milk roti ldquoKalari is eaten fresh in households kids throng to the kitchen when itrsquos made Itrsquos also fried or eaten as a snack sandwiched in buns or rotisrdquo he saysPanIndia essentialsPaneer a fresh cheeseWhile cheesemaking is often thought of as an imported concept the practice has been a part of everyday Indian kitchens for generations in the form of paneer and its cousins chhenna and khoya Jasani shares it was possibly the Portuguese who popularised the notion of splitting milkKurush DalalldquoAnd some of the immediate byproducts were chhenna and paneer Itrsquos also interesting to note that lsquopeynirrsquo in Persian means cheeserdquo she reveals Dalal meanwhile points out that these fresh cheeses possibly came into existence to avoid wasting milk which spoils easilyOrder in a slicegtgt The Cheese Collective curates a range of Indian cheeses including BandelCall 9820059926gtgt Get your hands on the Kashmiri kalari produced by Himalayan CheeseLog on to himalayancheesecom gtgt Tamboly is one of the few Parsi home chefs making topli nu paneer in MumbaiCall 9820660994gtgt This ecommerce store sells chhurpiLog on to amazonin