Saffron

February 2, 2015 Recipe

Saffron Chicken

My Ottolenghi obsession continues: this saffron chicken salad with fennel has the warm notes of saffron, and the bright piquancy of blood oranges. There’s something about Middle Eastern cooking that fascinates me at the moment. Though I’m normally firmly routed in an Italian sensibility, for the last couple of years Hubby has increasingly cooked dishes from the Indian subcontinent. As a result we’ve become attuned to the subtlety of spices and herbs. Curries and the like can still be a little overwhelming for my Mediterranean palate, but Middle Eastern cuisine sits very comfortably between the two: bright herbs and warm spices, the food is flavoursome, colourful and healthy. Though this dish isn’t a traditional Israeli one, it was born out of that food culture. It can be served on its own, or for a more substantial meal, you could pair it with Persian Jewelled Rice.

Ingredients:
1 orange ( I used two small blood oranges)
50g honey
½ tsp saffron threads
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
about 300ml water
1kg skinless chicken breast
4 tbsp olive oil
2 small fennel bulbs, thinly sliced
15g picked coriander leaves
15g picked basil leaves, torn
15 picked mint leaves, torn
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 red chilli, thinly sliced

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas Mark 6.
Trim and discard 1cm off the top and tail of the orange and cut it into 12 wedges, keeping the skin on. Remove any pips. Place the wedges in a small saucepan with the honey, saffron, vinegar and just enough water to cover the orange wedges. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for about an hour. At the end you should be left with soft orange and about 3 tablespoons of thick syrup; add water during the cooking if the liquid gets very low. Use a food processor to blitz the orange and syrup into a smooth, runny paste; again, add a little water if needed.
Mix the chicken breast with half the olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper, and place on a very hot, ridged griddle pan. Sear for about 2 minutes on each side to get clear char marks all over. Transfer to a roasting tin and place in the oven for 15–20 minutes, or until just cooked. Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, but still warm, tear it with your hands into rough and quite large pieces.
Place in a large mixing bowl, pour over half the orange paste and stir well. (The other half you can keep in the fridge for a few days and would make a good addition for herb salsa to serve with oily fish such as mackerel or salmon.)
Add the remaining ingredients to the salad, including the rest of the olive oil, and toss gently. Taste, add salt and pepper and, if needed, some more olive oil and lemon juice.

February 1, 2015 Recipe

Saffron Jewelled Rice

As a pescetarian, vegetarian dishes are a substantial part of my diet, but when I need to feed a large number of people this is ideal, and is generally a crowd-pleaser. Because it’s one dish that’s fantastic to serve alone, with meat, or fish, it suits so many diets. For our school Quiz Night {amazingly one of the highlights of the social calendar, as we’re all so laughably inept} I served it with Ottolenghi’s Saffron Chicken.

Jewelled rice is a Persian {Iranian} dish, usually saved for weddings and celebrations. Although mine is perhaps not the most authentic version, it seems there is no definitive recipe {or rather everyone thinks their version, is the definite version}. I can’t even spot a consistent difference between the two names: Morasa and Javaher Polow – both seemingly meaning jewelled rice.

Amongst the dozens of recipes I’ve read, there appear to be two distinct variations: one which uses spices and saffron, and a whiter version which omits them. Beyond that, I’ve seen every combination of ingredients and techniques. A few remain common: both nuts and dried fruit feature heavily, with the fruit usually being barberries. These are a sour berry not dissimilar to cranberries in appearance, but as I don’t always have them to hand, I’ve found dried physalis, and sour cherries to be a decent substitute. The physalis particularly has a sour but plump effect. The recipe which appealed to me the most came from the Amira site, and this is the one I’ve adapted.
Serves 8 comfortably

Ingredients:
600g long-grain basmati rice
Generous pinch of saffron threads
300g dried fruit (I used cherries, physalis, cranberry and blueberry)
4 shallots, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
60g unsalted butter
A few fine julienne of carrot
Zest of 1 orange
1 cinnamon stick
seeds from 8 cardamon pods
2 tsp cumin seeds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:
100g walnuts, roughly chopped
100g pistachios
seeds of a large pomegranate
Generous handful of parsley, chopped
1 garlic clove, very finely chopped

Method:

Run the basmati under water in a sieve to remove the excess starch, and the cover with cold water, setting it aside to soak for an hour
Cover the saffron with three tablespoons of orange blossom water, and leave to steep
Add the dried fruit to a small bowl, and barely cover in boiling water, leave to steep
After 30 minutes, add the oil and half the butter to a frying pan and set over a low heat. Add the spices and the shallot, and soften gently for 30 minutes until the shallots are barely caramalised. Turn off the heat.
Drain the rice into a large saucepan, and pour boiling water over the rice, until it comes approximately 3cm above the rice. On a medium heat, boil the rice for 3 minutes, then drain and rinse under cold running water, draining well.
When cool, mix the basmati into the shallots, along with the carrot strips, orange zest, saffron infusion, the dried fruit, and their soaking water. Season well with salt and pepper, and stir well.
Dot the surface of the rice with the remaining butter
Using a wooden spoon handle, make 5-6 holes through the rice, allowing it to steam evenly
Take a large piece of baking paper, scrunch it up, and soak in a little water. Shake off the excess, and lay over the rice {as a cartouche}. Cover the pan tightly with a damp tea towel, or sheet of foil, and set over a low heat. Cook, undisturbed, for 40 minutes. By this time your rice will be fluffy and a buttery crust will cover the bottom
While the rice is steaming, toast the nuts in a dry pan until they begin to smell ‘nutty’. Tip into a large bowl, and stir in the parsley, orange zest, garlic, carrot strips and pomegranate seeds
Once the rice has cooked, remove the paper, and stir through the nut and herb mixture. Serve the caramelised rice (the tah-dig) over the top.

I combine this dish with Ottolenghi’s Saffron Chicken, which also contains cardamom and oranges {one of my favourite combinations, as I’m sure you will have realised!}. The two dishes have a number of ingredients in common, and echo each other very successfully. I also took along a selection of hummus, with pitta breads toasted with a little olive oil, parsley and dukkah. Our portable pudding was a bento box of fruit, and a few riciarelli {which though Italian, are not hugely dissimilar to Middle Eastern nut treats}. And no. We did not win!

Do let me know what your favourite version of Jewelled Rice is!

January 15, 2015 Italian

Saffron Risotto

Saffron risotto | Risotto alla Milanese: the favourite comfort food of my thirteen year old. She’s always loved risotto, and I can only put that down to the holidays we took when she was very tiny, when we would spend the summer months in Italy… One of her first ever risotto’s was a Barolo and gorgonzola affair, eaten al fresco in Lucca, the spectacular walled town to the north of Pisa. Just over a year old, the Italian’s adored her gusto as she wolfed down half of my supper, having already eaten a healthy portion of my carpaccio… To this day carpaccio and parmesan are a key part of her diet. I’ve never really considered before how much this has to do with early exposure, but in retrospect, some of these early ingredients are the very bedrock of her diet.

There’s quite a lot of detail to put into any post on risotto, so I’ve separated the parts out, with one lengthy post on the finer details of risotto here… And here is my saffron risotto:

Ingredients:
250g risotto rice, preferably Aquerello rice
1L of good chicken or vegetable stock
3 shallots, very finely diced
a large pinch of good saffron
1 large glass of white wine (I used a mixture of Noilly Prat and Marsala)
60g of cold, diced, unsalted butter (approx)
40g of hard cheese, such as Grana Padano or Parmesan

Method:

Sauté the shallots in the butter and olive oil until they soften – you’re not looking for the shallots to colour… And unlike some risotto bases, the soffrito for saffron risotto doesn’t include garlic. My shallots were chopped a little too large here – ideally you want them to be the same size as the rice.
In the meantime, gently heat your stock – do not boil it, or you may reduce the stock to fast, and make it too strong.
Take a ladleful of the stock and put it into a small bowl – add your saffron and allow it to infuse
Once the shallot has softened sufficiently, pour in the risotto rice, and stir it into the base – you’re actually looking to toast the rice (tostatura), and you can see each kernel will become more translucent. After a minute or so, pour in the alcohol of your choice… Ordinarily it’s a glass of white wine, but I’ve seen a variety of things used from Vermouth to Masala – personally I like the herby’ness of Noilly Prat, but on this occasion also used a little Madeira to push up the richness of the flavour base, and enhance the colour of the dish (apparently in Italy it’s not uncommon to add a tablespoon of passata, to increase the richness of the colour). Allow the alcohol to bubble until it has been absorbed into the rice. I do this until you can draw a line through the rice, with no liquid left in the pan.
If your saffron has “bloomed” sufficiently you can add it to your rice (I used to add it to the stock, but it seems to work better this way).
From this point on the process can be repeated with the stock – add a ladle at a time until it sits just above the rice, and keep stirring it until the stock has been absorbed.
Once the risotto has absorbed all the liquid, and is just al dente, take it off the heat and set it aside for a minute. This resting process allows the temperature to come down just enough, before you beat in the cheese and butter (the mantecatura).
Add sufficient cheese and cold diced butter to develop a creamy sauce – I can’t really tell you how much, as this bit is quite personal. I probably used about 60g of butter, and 40g of Parmesan.

I’ve shown the whole process in the following photographs….

Risotto base — Soften the shallots in a little olive oil

Add your alcohol and raise the temperature a little

Keep stirring until the alcohol is absorbed – you should be able to draw a line through the rice with your spoon.

Add a ladleful of stock

Keep stirring the rice, which allows the starches to be released. Make sure the stock is absorbed before adding the next ladelful.

Repeat the process, one ladleful at a time, until all the stock is used and the rice is al dente. If you run out of stock, you can add a little water.

Take your rice off the heat, and allow it to relax for a couple of minutes. Then beat in the cold butter and cheese, until a soft and relaxed risotto is achieved (clearly to your taste).

Serve the rice in a warmed bowl, with additional Grana Padano or Parmesan.