Munder saffron

So, here's the treasure at the end of all that toiling. This is from the harvest of 2006. I should have used it up sooner as it loses its potency with time.

Saffron risotto, saffron spaghetti, saffron spatzle, saffron cheese, saffron fondue and saffron parfait are some of the items served at Restaurant Salwald in Mund. We sampled everything except for the cheese and the fondue. Paella (Spain), bouillabaisse (Provence), saffron bread (Cornwall) and other baked goods (Sweden), rice pilaf and biryani (ranging from Iran to South Asia) and milk-based desserts such as kheer (South Asia) use saffron.

Some of my readers have posted their recipes in the comments to yesterday's post, and I'm expecting a few more to turn up today. I'll collate them and put them on my overflow blog sometime in the next couple of days. In the meantime, here's one of mine:

Semolina 'vermicelli' dessert (South Asia)
makes 4 half-cup servings

I'm calling it vermicelli for lack of a better name, it's actually made from semolina rather than durum wheat that is used to make the Italian vermicelli. See this Wikipedia article for more information. It's very thin and is available in Indian shops. Yesterday I did an experiment to see how the pasta labelled vermicelli in my local supermarket would work. The answer is: it doesn't work well AT ALL!! The dish had the correct delicate flavor, but the mouth feel of the pasta was wrong. And while some versions of this dish will firm up when chilled, mine didn't so I would serve it in stemmed glasses and provide small spoons.

60 g vermicelli, in 3 cm long pieces
12 g almond slivers
12 g cashews, broken into small pieces
12 g raisins
half-liter whole milk
4-6 tablespoons sugar
1 pinch saffron (roughly 10 whole threads)
Optional: 1 tablespoon rose water

- Toast the vermicelli until it turns light brown. I did this in a little butter, but that's not really necessary.
- Bring the milk to a boil. Lower heat, add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
- Put in the rest of the ingredients and simmer until the vermicelli is cooked through and the milk is slightly thickened. Be sure to stir regularly to prevent the milk from scorching.
- Remove from heat and stir in the rose water, if using.
- Chill overnight in refrigerator.


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