[Sca-cooks] Novice Saffron User

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Ignia il Nomade wrote:
>I am now the lucky owner of 1 gram of saffron threads (yay!!) and am at
>a loss with where to start or what to do with it. I've never used
>saffron before (always stayed away from it - spendy!) and would
>appreciate any tips or a good beginner recipe for it (mind you, a good
>"example" of saffron in a dish - I'm not a novice cook ;-) )
>
>Help? :-D

Just the other night a friend and i went to a good Indian restaurant 
in town. For dessert i ordered Firni. I've had it before, but this 
time it was special. It had *real* saffron in it (and edible silver 
foil on top, but that wasn't such a big deal to me). So i'd recommend 
cooking firni.

It's a simple dish, but amazingly refreshing after a hot (in 
temperature) and spicy meal. It would also be nice after a 
comparatively bland meal.

Not SCA period, but nicely highlights the saffron.

Firni (pronounced feer-nee)
Serves 4

pinch of saffron
3 cups milk
3 Tb. ground rice (a tad of texture is good, so you could grind your 
own rather than using rice flour, although rice flour will work)
3 Tb. sugar (use plain white so it won't interfere with the other flavors)
1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
1 Tb. rose water
2 Tb. pistachios or almonds (use normal pistachios, not the dyed red ones)

Crumble saffron and mix in about a tablespoon of warm water, then let 
stand about 15 minutes.
Mix a small amount of the cold milk with the ground rice until it 
forms a smooth cream.
Mix remaining milk with sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, 
stirring with a wooden spoon.
As soon as it comes to the boil, remove from the stove
Stir the saffron-water and cardamom into the hot milk.
Stir cold rice and milk, then whisk hot saffron-milk into the rice.
Put the mixture back into the saucepan, return to heat and stir 
constantly until the mixture boils and thickens.
Lower heat and cook at high simmer for 3 minutes or until thick, 
stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and stir in rose water and half of the chopped nuts.
(I suggest using both kinds of nuts - stir 1 Tb. slivered or chopped 
almonds into the firni and top with 1 Tb. chopped pistachios)
Put into individual serving dishes and let cool somewhat.
Decorate tops with remaining nuts, cover and chill (you definitely 
don't want refrigerator smell in this delicate dish)
Serve chilled.

(based on the recipes in "The Complete Asian Cookbook" by Charmaine 
Solomon and "World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking" by Madhur Jaffrey)

I've given a lot of steps but this is really incredibly simple.

Anahita