Decent and pricey saffron can be found at Whole Foods or Trader Joes, but does anyone know of places that sell high quality, preferably organic, saffron at reasonable prices? I'm guessing there must be some ethnic grocers in the area that carry good stuff. Someone gave me a pack of organically grown saffron from Iran about ten years ago, and it was much higher quality and more flavorful then the stuff found at supermarkets. Was hoping to find something similar around NoVA.

It's not clear to me what value saffron has. We have used it in a mediterranean-stuffed-chicken-breast recipe and, besides some coloring, thought that it was a useless ingredient adding next to nothing in flavor. Since then we have excluded it entirely and the recipe remains dynamite. As far as we could see, the saffron was there for bragging rights more than anything else.

I believe Iran pretty much has cornered the saffron market - like for a couple thousand years or so.

I think we bought the stuff at a local Indian grocery - it wasn't inexpensive.

http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeyssaffron.html

513 West Broad Street Falls Church, VA 22046
(703) 534-7770

Saffron is not an American spice.
Anyone who wants some should go to Iran and stay there.

Comfort Food Wrote:
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> It's not clear to me what value saffron has. We
> have used it in a
> mediterranean-stuffed-chicken-breast

It's a delicate flavor that probably gets overpowered by other flavors in meat dishes. I mainly use it for rice dishes.

Cook a cup of Uncle Ben's rice in some chicken broth along with some julienned carrots, diced green pepper & onion, some chopped celery and garlic, and a pinch of saffron, and you'll notice the distinct, fragrant flavor.

That's a good rice side dish, btw.

thanks for that penzey's link, that's actually convenient for me to stop in

the op Wrote:
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> Cook a cup of Uncle Ben's rice...That's a good rice side dish, btw.

Uncle Ben's is precooked rice (I believe they use the word "parboiled" or some such in the ingredient list); IMHO, anything with it in it cannot be called "a good rice dish".

Take your recipe (which does indeed sound good) and use freshly cooked rice in it.

Comfort Food Wrote:
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> Ben's is precooked rice (I believe they use
> the word "parboiled" or some such in the
> ingredient list); IMHO, anything with it in it
> cannot be called "a good rice dish".
>
> Take your recipe (which does indeed sound good)
> and use freshly cooked rice in it.



I'm talking about Uncle Ben's Converted rice. It's not "precooked", it's a dry rice that requires cooking. It's not that stuff from a pouch. I don't know what the 'converted' means exactly, but it's processed from brown rice so that it cooks faster and doesn't stick. It's easier to cook than regular rice and looks, tastes, and feels exactly like white rice.

I want to kick in your testicles BEH

BEH Wrote:
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> Saffron is not an American spice.
> Anyone who wants some should go to Iran and stay
> there.


Wegmans sells american saffron threads for about 2.50 in the organic department...if this helps you at all

ur an idiot

BEH Wrote:
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> Saffron is not an American spice.
> Anyone who wants some should go to Iran and stay
> there.

Wow, what a great comment. Glad to see you spend your life posting such intelligent shit. Nice!

I bet you're a real charmer, and not ugly as fuck. Help the world out and find a bridge to jump off of, please

try a persian market. there's one in sterling on rt 7. on the other side of rt 7, grand mart probably also carries saffron threads. persian market & bakery is in the group of stores next to Koons Foord and Chick-Fil-A.

PaellaPete Wrote:
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> http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeyssa
> ffron.html
>
> 513 West Broad Street Falls Church, VA 22046
> (703) 534-7770


This is a cool store, thanks for the heads-up. Got me some good Spanish saffron today.

I grow my own saffron in my yard. It's easy to grow here in the DC metro area. Pennsylvania is a good source of saffron too--Pennsylvania Dutch.

michaelcg51 Wrote:
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> I grow my own saffron in my yard. It's easy to
> grow here in the DC metro area. Pennsylvania is a
> good source of saffron too--Pennsylvania Dutch.

Sure, just grow a zillion crocuses (croci?) and spend a few weeks picking the stigmas out. Unless you're unemployed, not a very good use of your time..

they sell it at costco. It's a small quantity, so it's not a bulk amount.

Persian market. There's one in Sterling in the strip shopping center behind Chick-Fil-A's on Route 7.

go to any indian market - you can find it there. In fact they often sell 10lb bags of rice for dirt cheap with saffron packets included.

BEH RACIST Wrote:
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> I want to kick in your testicles BEH


You have been trolled sir. Have a nice day.