What Does Saffron Do for Food?
If you’ve ever been curious about saffron and how it can be used to create great tasting, exotic dishes then look no further. Here, the experts at Sara Saffron offer an insight in to how this incredible spice can be used to enhance the appearance, smell and flavour of lots of foods.
Using saffron in the kitchen
If someone asked you to name the most expensive food you could eat, you might think of the world’s finest caviar. Truffles might come to mind, too. Yet in both cases, you’d be wrong.
Instead, the title goes to saffron – an unassuming spice that comes from the crocus sativus flower. Its high price is due to the fact it can only be picked by hand during a small window each year. With three stigmas per flower, and fields filled with thousands of flowers, its labour-intensive harvesting process pushes up the cost.
For many, though, the cost is well worth it. If you’re wondering what saffron can do for food, read on.
Saffron adds a glorious colour to any dish
Make saffron rice – arguably one of the most famous dishes you can make with saffron – and you’ll see its gorgeous colour best of all. Its deep yellowish-orange shade is strong, and since you only need two or three of those saffron stigmas to create the colour, even a little of this expensive spice goes further than you’d imagine.
Saffron tastes… amazing
And yet many people struggle to accurately describe the taste of saffron. Some say sweet, some say bitter, although this could be attributed to how much or little is used. We all have different tastes too, so some people are likely to enjoy the taste of saffron far more than others.
Regardless of description, the flavour goes well with many other ingredients. It can do well on its own too, however, depending on the recipe and how it is used. This is another area where just a little is best though. Add too much and you’ll not only waste some of your precious supplies, you could also ruin the taste of your recipe altogether. Overdoing it can lead to a bitter taste you won’t be able to get rid of.
Saffron is ideal for main courses, sides, and even desserts
Many people associate saffron with rice, but you can also brew a cup of saffron tea or put together a range of other dishes with the help of this spice. Some might surprise you. You can make saffron custard, where the traditional use of vanilla is substituted by the saffron. You can imagine the stunning colour of the finished custard if you do this.
In some cases, a dish uses plain rice and adds the saffron to whatever is paired with it. There are some tempting Moroccan saffron chicken recipes to dip into, along with saffron and spinach chicken, to name a couple. Saffron really perks up a creamy sauce, imparting both colour and flavour as we’ve already seen.
Saffron can be an inspiring addition to any kitchen
If you’re new to saffron and you’re curious to use it in recipes, it’s best to do some research first. Always look for the best, genuine saffron and know that you only need a pinch to create the effect you want. Once you gain more confidence with it, you’ll know just how and where to use it for the best results. Enjoy the journey!
Where can you buy genuine, high quality saffron?
Sara Saffron offer a full range of authentic Persian saffron for incredible freshness, deep colour, pungent aroma and superb flavour. In our expert opinion this is the finest saffron you can buy.
All our saffron products are guaranteed to be genuine. They are fully tested to ISO 3632 standards and exceed Category I, or Best Quality standards in all attributes.
Our saffron comes direct from the best farms of the Khorasan province in the Middle East and includes Pushal, Negin, Super Negin and Organic saffron.
