How to Make Saffron Rice ?

[Italiancook]

Do you know how to make rice with saffron is a rice cooker?

When I was a kid, my dad would buy packages of saffron rice and serve it prepared with a regular meal. The next day, he'd put the leftover rice into Campbell's Consomme. It made the most delicious soup. For years, I carried on this tradition, but saffron rice formulas changed. The only packages of it I can find have some sort of hot pepper in them. I don't like the addition of heat; it changes the taste of the rice. It certainly doesn't taste good in consommé.

Now that I have a rice cooker, I'm thinking I could probably make saffron rice, but I'm unsure what to do. Do you think I should just add a healthy pinch of saffron to the water/rice in the cooker?

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• This topic was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Italiancook.

[Mike Nolan]

My wife is allergic to saffron, so I've never made it, but most recipes seem to use chicken stock instead of water, and maybe a little onion.

[Italiancook]

It hadn't occurred to me, Mike, that there was a recipe for saffron rice. After you mentioned it, I searched online. I found one recipe where the yellowness of the rice looks like what comes from the package. It's for stovetop cooking, so I'll have to experiment to adjust it to the rice cooker. Thanks!

[Italiancook]

I made saffron rice today using a variation of the recipe I found online but couldn't find now when I looked. It was for stovetop rice, and I used a rice cooker. Below is my recipe and results:

I used a scant 2 cups of basmati, and approximately 1/3 cup minced onion. I put a small pinch of saffron on a flat plate and crushed it into a powder with the back of a spoon. The recipe said to use a mortar and pestle, but I don't own one. I used chicken stock and added a larger pinch of saffron (whole) into the stock.

The finished product was the yellow I wanted, but it tasted like plain rice. In retrospect, I realize I was too stingy with the saffron pinches. Next time, I'll use more powdered and whole saffron. I realize I may never be able to replicate the taste of the packaged product I remember from a decade ago. They may have used something else in their mix. But I think that an adequate amount of saffron should add something to the flavor. Am I wrong?

[Italiancook]

I found a container of my first attempt at yellow rice in the freezer. I heated it up to go with lamb chops for lunch today. I've often heard, "We eat with our eyes first," and that's the only way to describe how much I enjoyed the saffron-yellow rice. I thought it tasted quite good. It was the color I remember from childhood, even though it didn't have the flavor. So my eyes tricked me.

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