Saffron is a Spice for Your Soul

Saffron is a spice for your soul. And it’s one of the more unusual spices, being tiny and brittle and powerfully mysterious in taste. The spice is not a bark, leaf or seed, but the stamen, or threadlike parts at the center of a particular crocus flower.

Though dried, it has a brilliant color. Bright orange-red, just one strand can colorize anything—skin, clothes, light-colored foods like rice, flours, cauliflower, potatoes. I discovered by accident that when it’s called for in a recipe, you have to restrain yourself! Add the spice carefully— just one or two extra strands can be too much! Such a tiny filament packs so much flavor that it tends to dominate the flavors of other spices.

Saffron, “the world’s most costly”, isn’t my everyday spice. But if I ate Saffron ice cream daily, I’d feel carefree and light, as it can induce giggles and laughter. That’s one effect this spice can have on you! Saffron possesses such properties, though it grows from the center of a flower only inches high.

I’ve enjoyed chais with strongly spiced tea taste—the spices are blended to arrive at a rich tea taste, regularly called “Masala Chai”. Some say that saffron strongly influences the rich tea flavor and I agree. And because the spice is native from the Mediterranean area to Iran, its original use in teas may have been in those regions. Yet you can purchase ready-made mixes of Indian saffron chai.

Comparing recipes from Ana Sortun and Ananta Ripa Ajmera that added this spice to their mixture, I found one with a robust, melded taste, an unusual synergy of all its ingredients.

One of the recipes for spiced milk I found in The Ayurveda Way, a lifestyle guide and cookbook by Ananta Ripa Ajmera, reviewed here.

 
 
 

Spiced Milk, according to Ajmera, should be very easy to digest and therefore she recommends diluting the milk with water and reducing the liquids by simmering. And adding saffron to the brew from the start ensures a very tea/saffron-y flavor that does require some sweetness to bring out its character. Ajmera calls for sugar to be added at the end of cooking, when the spiced milk is just about ready.

Another cookbook, Soframiz by Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick a chai recipe is called Sofra’s Chai, ‘though their cuisine is neither Indian nor Ayurvedic. You can see more about Soframiz, in this post. Although this recipe is quite complex and uses sugar as a major component in the syrup you’ll make for this style of chai, the combined taste of all spices, lemon and saffron is quite striking. Lacking any one of the spices or the lemon, it would still be good, but not fantastic, as the complete recipe is. You’ll want to make the syrup and have it available as a treat! or as chai, with tea.

I’d love to hear whether you’ve made chai and how you like the results. Please add your comments to facebook or instagram, if you’d like.

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