I had to get 'saffron' into the title for this one as it's not so often I use it. Sounds good, eh? It's an expensive spice, saffron and before now I might have classed it as an unnecessary luxury, easily replaced with a pinch of turmeric. But not any more. I've been experimenting with some I found in the cupboard and it really is good stuff with a mild but distinctive character and flavour.
The first time I bought saffron was the at the Anjuna Wednesday market in Goa. I came across a stall where a guy was selling little boxes of Kashmiri saffron for 50 rupees each. I thought it was almost to good to be true and bought a box. Turned out it was to good to be true. I don't know what was in the box but it wasn't saffron. It looked like it should, but when added to a dish it imparted absolutely no colour, smell or flavour whatsoever. It was probably wee bits of orange paper or something.
That was many years ago and I never thought of buying saffron again until a time when I was on the way to Hong Kong from Malaysia and had a few Malaysian Ringits to get rid of in the airport. There were some little boxes for sale in one of the shops. The boxes were considerably smaller than the ones in Anjuna had been and considerably more expensive too, but I bought a couple and stuck them in the bottom of my rucksack, resolving to have another go at cooking with saffron when I got home. For some reason I can't remember, I took the plastic bags of saffron out of their original boxes and stashed them in a small Marmite jar at the back of my spice cupboard, where they lay for around two years before I rediscovered them. This really was the genuine article and now I'm making up for lost time...
So, lately I've been running about looking for recipes to throw a bit of saffron into and I remembered this idea I've had for a while. It's based on a recipe a friend did a long time ago and I've almost forgotten what it was like except I remember it was cauliflower with olives and raisins. That's a good enough start though, and I put my own version together, adding a wee bit of saffron along with some other spices.
Ingredients
A medium cauliflower
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 tomatoes
A handful of raisins
A handful of de stoned green olives
A half teaspoon of coriander seed
A quarter teaspoon of cumin seed
A piece of cinnamon stick
A piece of fresh root ginger
A pinch of saffron
A couple of sprigs of fresh mint and/or coriander
Salt
Olive oil
Cut the cauliflower into florets and fry in olive oil with chopped onion, chopped ginger, the cinnamon stick and the cumin seed for a few minutes. Add the saffron and stir a little more, then add the tomatoes and garlic (chopped) along with the, raisins, olives (cut in half or lightly chopped), coriander seed and some salt. Stir gently and cover the pan. Cook on a medium heat until the cauliflower is tender, then remove from the heat and garnish with chopped mint and coriander.
This dish will go well with couscous.