Description of saffron: composition, calorie content, beneficial effects, harm and contraindications. What dishes can be cooked with this spice. Saffron improves the taste of the dish, is used as a food coloring, and has a beneficial effect on the human body if it is used correctly.
Useful properties of saffron
The witch doctors of ancient Persia and Babylon widely used saffron for medicinal purposes. Its beneficial effect on the body has been confirmed by modern research.
Saffron consumption:
- Rejuvenates the anatomical formations of the organ of vision, improves the sensitivity of the lens and optic nerve;
- Improves nerve-impulse conduction, memory function;
- Prevents the development of neuroses, stabilizes the perception of an unstable emotional environment and stress, prevents the onset of depression;
- Dissolves and removes cholesterol deposits from the body;
- Strengthens and tones the walls of blood vessels;
- Has anti-inflammatory effect in infectious diseases of the kidneys and bladder;
- Purifies blood and accelerates blood circulation;
- Possesses antioxidant properties, isolates free radicals accumulating in the liver, stimulates their removal from the body;
- Strengthens libido, stimulates reproductive functions;
- Helps women stabilize the menstrual cycle, reduces menstrual pain;
- Helps get rid of muscle and vascular spasms, headaches caused by changes in blood pressure;
- Has a general antimicrobial effect, strengthens the immune system, destroys viruses that penetrate the body at the cellular level;
- Increases tone and helps to tune in to active activity;
- Rejuvenates, accelerates the regeneration of the upper layer of the epidermis, strengthens the walls of peripheral capillaries and eliminates increased pigmentation;
When used as an external agent, saffron stops the purulent-inflammatory process during the development of boils, carbuncles and barley.
Official medicine uses its properties to stop the growth of cancer cells. The most pronounced effect of crocus extract has on liver cancer.
Harm and contraindications to the use of saffron
Saffron should be consumed in moderation and not increased in the amount of seasoning indicated in the recipe recommendations. 2 g of spice in 1 day can cause intoxication in a healthy person. Symptoms as in poisoning: nausea, fever, weakness, vomiting, headache, intestinal cramps and diarrhea. The body is not able to cope on its own, it is necessary to call an ambulance and carry out detoxification by infusion methods.
Contraindications to the use of saffron are as follows:
- Mental illness - schizophrenia, obsessive compulsions and neuroses;
- Convulsive readiness and epilepsy;
- Hypertonic disease;
- Diabetes mellitus of all types;
- Cardiovascular diseases in the acute stage;
- Children under 2 years old.
Do not use saffron during pregnancy. This can provoke uterine tone, uterine bleeding, and miscarriage.
To prepare a dish for an average family of 4-6 people, it is enough to add 1-2 strings of saffron.
Saffron recipes
In oriental dishes, saffron is combined with meat, fish, rice, and is added to soups. European culinary specialists are more restrained and improve the taste and color by using more seasoning for desserts - ice cream, jelly, cake creams, baked goods. Seasoning is introduced in the preparation of cheeses.
Saffron recipes:
- Soup kharcho … Saffron subtly emphasizes the taste of a spicy dish. Main ingredients: 500 g beef, 4 onions, 80 g carrots, 50 g celery, half a glass of round rice. Seasonings: half a teaspoon each of sea salt, red chili, cumin, a quarter teaspoon of saffron, 15 g fresh chopped cilantro, 3 cloves of garlic. You will need sunflower oil for frying. A transparent broth is boiled from the meat, constantly removing the foam. Carrots, onions and celery are placed in a container after removing the foam and cooked with the meat. Then the vegetables are removed, and the broth, if boiled, is filtered. The finished soft beef is chopped and put back into the pan. The onions and garlic are sautéed until golden brown. The rice is washed and poured into the soup. All spices, except for cilantro, are mixed, pounded and after the rice are poured into the soup. When the rice is almost cooked, add the onion, garlic and cilantro. Another 5 minutes, and acidified with tkemal sauce, add garlic and pepper to taste, let it brew for 15 minutes under the lid. It is better to cook the soup in a thick-walled cast-iron saucepan, then you do not have to reheat it.
- Stewed cabbage with saffron … To prepare the dish, prepare in advance: 0.5 kg of chicken hearts without films, Bulgarian yellow or green pepper, shredded cabbage - 2 kg, large onion, garlic - 3 prongs, saffron on the tip of a knife, 4 tablespoons of sunflower oil. Cut the vegetables, cut the hearts into 3-4 pieces and put them to stew. 15-20 minutes before turning off the meat, add chopped onions and garlic to them, add salt and saffron, spread cabbage and pepper and bring to readiness.
- Saffron cookies … The dessert turns out to be not only tasty, but also very beautiful, unmatched lemon color. Add 4-5 strings of saffron to a tablespoon of expensive cognac. Beat the yolk from 2 eggs and add 3/4 cup of powdered sugar. You can use sugar, but then the consistency of the dessert will not be tender enough. Mix yolks with cognac, add melted butter (4 tablespoons) and add 1.5 cups of flour. The dough is brought to uniformity, it should be soft, slightly sticky. Bake on a baking sheet, on parchment greased with sunflower oil, at a temperature of 180-200 ° C. The lump of dough is shaped like an apricot, the characteristic indentation is drawn with a fork.
- Rice with saffron … Saffron (5 stigmas) is mixed with a quarter glass of warm water and left to stand for 15-20 minutes. A glass of basmati rice is fried in a deep saucepan, but no crust should form. When the rice is sufficiently fried, pour 1.5 cups of steep, pure boiling water and water with saffron into a saucepan. Cook rice under the lid, until cooked, stirring occasionally, add some salt during cooking. This rice is best used as a side dish for fish or seafood.
The following saffron drinks increase tone, strengthen immunity, and improve mood:
- Saffron milk … Milk (3 cups) is boiled, adding 2 clove sticks and a few grains of cinnamon to it. After 5 minutes, remove it from the heat, add saffron on the tip of a knife and honey (1, 5 tablespoons). They take out the boiled cloves and achieve complete homogeneity of the drink. Pistachios are poured into the milk - about a tablespoon.
- Libyan drink qahwa … Coffee is brewed in Arabic: a teaspoon of sugar is poured into the cezva, heated until it turns yellow, and immediately pouring ice water - half a glass. Pour in coffee - 2 teaspoons, stir until a frothy head appears. Remove the cezve from the heat, wait until it cools down a little, reheat it to a frothy cap, not allowing it to boil over. The procedure is repeated three times, for the third time adding 2 cardamom seeds, a quarter teaspoon of saffron.
- Honey compote … A thick compote is cooked from one type of fruit or berries; it is better to use apples, peaches or grapes. Proportions: 400 g of fruit per 1 liter of water. 3-4 minutes before turning off, add honey - 70 g, and when removed from heat - saffron on the tip of a knife. Drink chilled.
In order for saffron to fully give its taste, it is put into baking at the kneading stage, but in hot dishes either at the stage of turning off, or 2 minutes before the end of cooking.
The seasoning should be stored in a tightly closed glass or tin container in a dark place at a temperature not exceeding 18-20 ° C. But even under ideal conditions, beneficial properties and taste disappear after 2-2.5 years.
Interesting facts about saffron
In terms of cost, this seasoning is the most expensive: the price of 1 kg of spice reaches $ 2,000. To make 1 kg of spice, you need to pick 80,000 flowers! No more than 3-4 kg of future seasoning is harvested from one acre.
Saffron is harvested by hand. At dawn, before the dew falls, the flowers are plucked, then the core is manually removed and spread to dry. Thin stamen stamens must be removed on the first day of flowering, otherwise the desired taste cannot be obtained. The crocus planting site is changed every 3-4 years, the land is rapidly becoming impoverished, and the yield is falling.
In ancient Babylon and Persia, flowers were used as dyes for expensive fabrics. Dried stamens were brought to Europe by Arab merchants in the 9th century, and noble ladies of England began to use them for dyeing their hair. By the 11th century, saffron had already been "noticed" by culinary experts, and the spice began to gain popularity in wealthy homes.
Saffron is combined to taste with tomatoes, asparagus and cabbage, with citrus fruits. From spices, it can be combined with rosemary, basil, cinnamon or cilantro, but not together, but separately. In order to soften the taste of saffron, it is recommended to pre-soak it or fry it in a dry frying pan. The first method is preferable, water can also be used to improve the taste, add to tea or coffee.
Unscrupulous sellers are trying to "foist" cheap condiments instead of expensive saffron:
- Safflower - you can recognize it by the absence of smell;
- Turmeric - very similar, but sold only in ground form, and saffron looks like many small strands;
- Marigolds - if you look closely, the stamen threads are flattened, the spice is represented by petals.
All fakes, unlike real saffron, are cheap. There is one more difference: if a little saffron is immersed in water, then it will be colored no earlier than 15 minutes later. Cheap condiments change the color of the liquid instantly. Watch a video about saffron:
You should not buy ground saffron, it is almost impossible to distinguish a fake when purchasing.
