Saffron

 Saffron is used pretty extensively in Persian Cuisine. I love the smell of it and the beautiful deep yellow color that it gives rice as well as its delicate aroma.

Picture courtesy of FX Cuisine
There is a reason why Saffron is so expensive. Harvesting Saffron is no easy task. You get a little glimpse of it in the picture above taken by fellow blogger François-Xavier of FX Cuisine. I absolutely adore his blog and I am very sad that he doesn’t blog as often as he used to.  If you get a chance please go over and read about his adventure harvesting Saffron in Switzerland!!

This is how Persians usually prepare and use saffron in food. You have seen me do this before in pictures, but here is the step by step process.

This is all you need a mortar along with hot water.

I love this little little stainless steel Turkish coffee maker pot because I can use it to quickly boil up a small amount of  water for my saffron without having to use my kettle or a sauce pan.

In a mortar grind a pinch of saffron with a pinch of salt or sugar.  The addition of salt or sugar will make the process easier.

Place ground saffron in a small bowl and pour hot water over it. Make sure that you always use hot water as it helps release the aroma and works much better than room temperature water.

Stir well. Now you are ready to use the saffron in your recipe as needed.


If you don’t want to  bother with having to grind the saffron every time you use it, here are a couple of shortcut options.

Place ground saffron in a small spice bottle.

Add hot water to it and close the lid. Give it a nice shake.  Open the lid and let cool down to room temperature. Store bottle in the fridge and use as needed.

Alternatively, you can store your ground saffron in a small jar. I was given this jar by one of my aunts which came filled with ground saffron! I keep on reusing it as it is nice and small.

So there you have it! A couple of nice shortcuts to save time while cooking!