Saffron: You Can Have Too Much Of A Good Thing (Norman Costa)

Saffron: You Can Have Too Much Of A Good Thing

Between FaceBook and 3QuarksDaily, there have been a couple of outstanding chefs and writers who have paid great homage to the incredible spice, Saffron. Exceptional among them is Elatia Harris' three-part series, Saffron Mother, on 3QD.

Now, the staff at National Public Radio (NPR) presents an interesting article on saffron for their All Things Considered program, Saffron: You Can Have Too Much Of A Good Thing.

The story features food writer Monica Bhide who writes a syndicated column called Seasonings. A bonus from all of us is two recipes.  I'm not a foodie, and I've not kitchen tested anything, but that's what you readers can do and report your results.

 

The first recipe is for:

Soup Of Carrot, Bell Pepper And Saffron

 

The second recipe is for:

Indian Yogurt Pudding With Saffron

If you try them, please let the rest of know how they taste.

Comments

[Elatia Harris]

Thanks for the plug! But I must tell you, my recipes in Saffron Mother, Part III, are immensely better than these, my photos far more optically seductive... From the strictly culinary point of view, one CAN have too much saffron, but I have tried for that effect, and not achieved it. It's among those substances that answer a deep soulful need, so that another person's directions as to how much is enough are really only bothersome. AB readers who are not yet saffron-oriented are advised to infuse a few threads in boiling water, drink it like an herbal concoction, and see if they like the taste. That will give a very good idea of how much saffron one might enjoy in one's food. In around 1740, Nicholas Culpeper, a London pharmacist, cautioned users not to over-do -- one could die of hilarity, he said. I'm working on it.

[Sujatha]

Hilarity, I can get that in oodles from the NPR article.

Bhide:
""I grew up in a Hindu household where, first of all, the kitchen is considered sacred," she says. "Everything you're cooking in it is sacred. And the first portion of the food is always for the gods. So if you actually taste while you're cooking, you're making the food impure. So I remember when my grandmother would cook, we're cooking by sound, sight, smell, and when everything would be done the first plate of food would be given to animals. Usually there'd be a dog or a cow in the back, and they say animals carry the spirit of god because they're so pure."

Starts to sound like a blurb on the back of shocking-pink wrappered, saree bordered chick lit cover.

Is it possible that the dog or cow in the back are being fed to make sure that the food doesn't make the eater sick, especially if it hasn't been tasted. I've heard plenty of 'urban legend' stories about food poisoning due to tails of lizards falling into the dish cooking on the stove. But Bhide's story is far more pleasing to Western ears than the more mundane possibility that I suggest.

Next, the carrot soup recipe- a word of caution. If you insist on using 1 whole teaspoon of turmeric, you could end up not only with the turmeric overpowering the 'delicate' flavor of saffron, you also run a risk of making your soup a bit more bitter than it should be. 1/4 to 1/2 tsp is more like it. Though, for all I know, the NPR recipe-tester may have used a whole teaspoon because it makes the photo turn out better, and as everyone knows, the more curcumin you ingest, the less likely you will end up with cancer, Alzheimers, etc.

[Elatia Harris]

You tell 'em, Sujatha! I had to come back. Because there's something deceptive in the article that may not be Monica Bhide's fault. One doesn't add the saffron to a vegetable mixture sauteeing in oil because saffron is not oil-soluble; it dissolves in neutral or slightly acidic liquids -- plain water, defatted broth, water with lemon juice, white wine, etc. And. If you want to use olive oil with saffron in the same dish, that's fine -- there are many Mediterranean dishes with saffron. If you are cooking South Asian with olive oil, you've messed up already, nothing to do with saffron. I don't think clover honey in an Indian dessert is really great either -- where IS this kitchen she uses, at Pooh Corner? Use some brasscia honey or karanj honey, why not? Anyone who suggests THAT much turmeric is right, in a dish that contains saffron, is not purity-minded. And. If you are cooking carrots without a little cardamom, you are missing out.

I certainly hope the culinary goddess of AB, Ruchira, is tuning in, as her Delhi vacation winds down...

[Norman Costa]

Who knew that I could be a source of amusement for a couple of foodies.

[Sujatha]

In all fairness, the NPR article and recipes do have the following:"Adapted from Modern Spice by Monica Bhide (Simon & Schuster, 2009)"

I don't know if the original calls for that much turmeric. Maybe it doesn't.
I don't use saffron much, just the occasional soak in milk, before adding to some kind of sweet pudding (payasam) or maybe a semolina-based sweet, or the syrup for gulab jamuns (not soaked in milk for that one).

I use a fair amount of turmeric, but never in whole teaspoons, it does add a distinctive taste and odor to the dishes, and never in the same dishes as saffron.

No, Norman, I'm not a foodie, though I might like to play one someday on the internet. I'm just your average good ol'home-cookin' mamma. Only that the food I grew up with happens to be S.Indian vegetarian.

[Sujatha]

Eek, unterminated italics

[Karen]

Thank-you for these delightful postings. I will savour my saffron in warm milk and honey tonight to help me sleep, dreaming of South Indian food and visiting with appreciative friends.

[Norman Costa]

Italics turned off.

[Norman Costa]

let's see if this turns them off.

[narayan]

Monica had to ruin a good thing by adding ricotta to srikhand and calling it Indian yogurt pudding. The original is scrumptious enough without the tinkering. Also, I wonder if un-soaked saffron does anything for one's palate.

A former boss, a Greek, asked me what I wanted him to bring me from a trip home; I requested saffron as I had read that the best stuff comes from Krokos. Nobody, including the cooks in his family, had an idea of what it was and pointed him to turmeric (according to Wikipedia, saffron was reintroduced to Greece from Austria 300 years ago). He persisted and finally found the stuff in a pharmacy. I still have the empty bottle; the label has a painting of a purple crocus and says "Greek Red Saffron / 2g / Stigmata Krokos Kozanis". Stigmata? Holy Christ! It was the reddest saffron I've seen, and the bottle still retains the aroma after seven years. It got me addicted for a while - mostly a pinch added to the teapot (And no - I'm not a one-teapot family, thanks).

As for turmeric, it was once called saffron of India, which at once maligns both India and saffron. It is still açafrão da Índia to the Portuguese, possibly to spite their Iberian neighbors who are big saffron producers - "WE get OURS from the colonies!". The dried and powdered form has a coarse flavor compared to fresh turmeric, which looks like a ginger mini-me. Fresh turmeric root makes a delectable pickle, with or without red chili. It also adds more flavor and crunch than aroma and color when used in cooking.

And for the record Norman, I'm an anti-foodie.

[Sujatha]

Why are these darned things not turning off?? Italics- you are dead to me!

[Ruchira]

Starts to sound like a blurb on the back of shocking-pink wrappered, saree bordered chick lit cover.

Only from Sujatha and apt words, at that.

Elatia, as I indicated in your original Saffron Mother post, I do not use much saffron in my main cooking but do so occasionally in Indian sweet dishes. I love it as tea, with or without honey, as you suggested. And remember I also told you that I remove the strands from the tea (before I take the first sip) and re-soak them in little warm water which I add to my Britta water pitcher. What good use and re-use of the spice.

Norman, thanks for the "Mistress of Spice" post. But we are still waiting to know what the odalisque has to do with the financial big lies.

I am not a culinary goddess. But all of you please note that I am definitely an italics tamer.

[Elatia Harris]

Narayan, Greek saffron, which comes only from that region of Greece, is as good as any in the world, but it is SO hard to get. There are medical benefits from saffron, benefits that include non-foodies. It's extremely mood-elevating, which they knew at least as long ago as the Ebers Papyrus, a medical treatise from the early 2nd Millennium BCE. And, as I always observe, your breadth of knowledge is astonishing, foodie or no!

Sujatha, would you consider an essay on how to tell Subcontinental chick lit from South Asian lit that happens to be written by women? I mean, BEFORE one reads? I have felt lulled and gulled into reading lots of chick lit -- from everywhere -- and I wish I knew ahead of time I was being targeted for that. I have traveled only in Europe and Mexico, so I lack finer feeling, or have only enough of it to tell if I've read chick lit LATER. You've cued me -- it has a shocking pink saree cover motif -- but I want to read more from your pen on this subject.

Ruchira, to have a faintly saffron tinted supply of Britta water on hand is the most epicurean thing I have ever heard...

[Dean C. Rowan]

Seems to me we've seen this anti-italic bias at AB before. Look, my people (well, half of them) come from Calabria, proud italics all of them. (I'm almost completely making this up.)

I add a few strands of saffron to the rice when I do an Anglo version of korma. Not a pilaf as described by Elatia at 3QD, just rice and saffron (and salt, of course). It works for me.

But please, please, stop this senseless termination of my people.

[Ruchira]

Dean, I said tame not terminate. Surely you don't object to that.

I too like a little saffron in the rice with north Indian meat dishes but never with Bengali preparations.

[Dean C. Rowan]

No, Ruchira, your euphemism for wholesale slaughter, like Norman's "let's see if this turns them off," only makes me nervous. Sujatha's the bloodthirsty one: "Eek, unterminated italics," "Italics- you are dead to me!"

[Sujatha]

Well, well. Dean, you're indulging in testerics over italics.
Welcome to the Tea Party, or maybe even TeaPot Party, on A.B. We'll lace it with saffron, of course.

[Sujatha]

Sorry the Teapot party link is here