Zafaran

*The photo is copied from www.persiatours.com

Dear Rumi joon,
I want to give you my 101 on saffron. I say "my 101" because many people use this spice, but not many know how to truly use it for what it's worth.
I've seen saffron dumped whole, out of it's exotic tin, into a boiling pot of bouillabaisse. Or, even worse, I've seen chefs take a big pinch from the tin and carelessly throwing it into a pan of risotto with some landing on the stove top and being brushed off onto the mats of a busy line. *tear*
Why the tear? Well...
It wasn't until my second trip to Iran at the age of 8 that I learned how to appreciate and respect "zafaran." Your great-grandmother (mommy joon) was hosting a huge dinner party in honor of our visit. I woke up early the morning of the party to help her with all the preparations for the evening.
It was a feast. And with that feast came the use of a lot of saffron. She pulled out her special saffron tin, a mortar/pestle and showed me how to carefully grind the delicate stigmas against a few grains of sugar. So I did as she told me. When the stigmas were no longer and the powder was all over the edges of the mortar, I did what any 8 year old would do. I took in a deep breath and blew into the mortar!
My mommy joon laughed, and carefully brushed it off my face. But I knew, I knew inside she wished I hadn't done that. I probably had over $50 worth of saffron on my face, yet she continued with a new batch and we went on with the cooking.
That day, she taught me about the beauty of saffron and the respect one needs to give it in the kitchen.
She taught me...
Saffron is the stigma picked from the Crocus flower. Each Crocus flower produces about 3 stigmas. Because it is hand-picked from a delicate flower, it is the world's most expensive spice.

My mom and grandma have taught me to set aside a separate mortar/pestle for the use of saffron. One that is not porous at all. A ceramic one works best.
Here are the steps to prepare saffron for food preparation:

• Pinch of saffron (about 1/8 teaspoon)

• small pinch of sugar (you can use salt, but you may end up over salting your food)

• grind with your mortar/pestle till powdered. Tap to get the powder to the center of the mortar.

• Add 2 oz. of boiling water.

Let the saffron steep in the water to get a deep hue. You can always add more water if you want to dilute the color and flavor.
After about 1o minutes you have "saffron tea" that is ready to be mixed into any of your dishes.

This method not only lets you get a lot of use out of a small pinch, but I feel like this method truly respects the once living Crocus Sativus.