[Sca-cooks] Novice Saffron User

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> Okay, but this still doesn't answer my question completely. In another
> message in this same thread, Phlip commented "The important thing is to
> get the saffron hot and wet before
> adding the rice, so it permeates the dish."

The really important thing is to get the saffron wet- the heat just speeds
up the dispersion of the essence of saffron- basic chemistry.

> So I was wanting to know if the saffron was kept dry until the dish was
> almost finished cooking, then crushed and added to the paella as a
> powder. Or if it was crushed and then mixed in a liquid and then added
> to the paella. From your comments above I think I can rule out the
> other possibility that occurred to me, cooking the threads in the dish
> until the dish was almost done, straining them out, crushing them, and
> then adding them back to the dish.

Yes, the (dry) saffron is added towards the end, so that it adds color and
flavor without dispersing entirely into the rest of the dish. You COULD try
to strain it out, but if you do, I wanna watch ;-) It kinda tends to vanish
during the cooking process. If I were to do it, I'd crush it, add it to warm
liquid, let that set for a few, then add the liquid to the rest of the
stuff, stirring gently until it was incorporated- more like tossing gently,
than stirring, actually, as you might do when making egg salad if you wanted
to keep the egg bits reasonably intact. You don't want a paella to become an
amorphous mass like a meat loaf- wouldn't work anyway, with the shells and
bones involved, but rather more like a Chinese stir fry, with tasty,
distinguishable pieces coated with a saffron flavored sauce.

Saint Phlip,
CoDoLDS

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....