Yellow fever: Yotam Ottolenghi’s saffron recipes

Just the basic facts and stats about saffron leave me pretty awed. The name comes from the Arabic for “thread”, which makes sense, because saffron is made from the thin stigmas of the crocus. They are so delicate that they have to be hand-picked the day the flower begins to open, in late autumn. To produce 450g saffron, you need 2.25kg stigmas, and to get that many stigmas, you need about 70,000 crocus flowers. And that number of flowers takes roughly 200 hours of labour to harvest. Suddenly, the high price this spice commands starts to make sense (the best-quality Spanish stuff from La Mancha costs about £5.50 a gram).

I love the little see-through plastic boxes in which saffron is often sold: they look like miniature treasure chests, encouraging you to treat the golden, jewel-coloured threads within with the reverence they so richly deserve. To me, saffron smells of newly mown hay, and it imbues any dish with a honeyed, golden glow; no wonder anyone who tries to describe the stuff tends to come over all elaborate and flowery.

At those prices, it’s fortunate that less is more when it comes to using saffron: not only would overdoing it be very expensive, in quantity it can impart an unwelcome bitterness.

When it comes to infusing your saffron, however, more is definitely more: give it as long as you can (ideally, leave the strands to soak overnight); the more time you allow for the colour and flavour to leach out into the soaking liquid, the better (though you can speed things along by starting off with boiling water).

Burnt aubergine with saffron yoghurt

Serve as a first course with fresh flatbread. Serves four.

3 medium aubergines (about 900g)
2½ tbsp olive oil
15g pine nuts, roughly chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1 tbsp picked flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
90g Greek yoghurt
1 pinch saffron (around ⅛ tsp), soaked in 1 tsp boiling water

Turn the grill to its highest setting. Prick the aubergines in several places with a sharp knife, place on a foil-lined baking tray and place under the hot grill for about an hour and 20 minutes, turning every 20 minutes or so, until charred all over, and deflated – you want them black, so be brave. Remove and, when cool enough to handle, scrape the flesh out of the aubergines and discard the skin. Roughly chop the flesh and put in a colander for 30 minutes, to drain.

Put a small pan on a medium heat with a tablespoon of oil. Add the pine nuts and a pinch of salt, and fry, stirring, for two minutes, until golden; take care not to let them go too dark, so the moment they’re golden, tip into a bowl and set aside.

Pour the remaining tablespoon and a half of oil into the same pan and place on a high heat. Fry the onion for three minutes, stirring often, until partly cooked – you want the onion to retain a slight crunch – then tip the hot oil and onion into a medium bowl and add the aubergine, garlic, parsley, a third of a teaspoon salt and a small grind of pepper. Stir gently, then spread out on a serving plate. Spread the yoghurt over the aubergine, leaving the edges of the aubergine visible, then drizzle over the saffron and its water. Spoon over the pine nuts and oil, and serve at room temperature.

Saffron chicken with lemon and olives

You’ll need some plain couscous to go with the chicken, to soak up all that aromatic sauce. Serves six.

3 small whole preserved lemons (60g), chopped, pips discarded
12 garlic cloves, peeled
2½ tsp cumin seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
1½ tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp ground turmeric
90ml olive oil
Salt
6 chicken thighs (skin on, bone in) and 6 chicken drumsticks
2 large onions, peeled and cut into six
1 large lemon, cut in half lengthways and thinly sliced
¼ tsp saffron strands
100g pitted green olives, gently crushed with the flat of a large knife
10g coriander leaf, chopped

Put the preserved lemon, garlic, cumin, paprika and turmeric in the small bowl of a food processor, add four tablespoons of oil and a teaspoon of salt, and blitz to a paste. Transfer to a large bowl, add all the chicken and use your hands to rub the paste all over. Set aside in the fridge to marinate for at least four hours, preferably overnight.

Next day, use your hands to wipe off the excess marinade from the chicken back into the bowl. Put a large casserole dish for which you have a lid on a medium-high heat with a tablespoon of oil and, when hot, add the chicken in batches and sear for about seven minutes, turning once halfway through, until brown and crisp on both sides. Remove from the pan and set aside while you sear the remaining chicken.

Once all the chicken has been seared, wipe clean the pan if it has any burnt bits stuck to the bottom, then add another tablespoon of oil and fry the onion for 10 minutes, until softened. Return the chicken, the remaining marinade, 250ml cold water, the lemon, saffron and half a teaspoon of salt. Stir, cover and cook on a low heat for 40 minutes. Add the olives, and cook, uncovered, for a final 10 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce nice and thick (you may need to reduce it for five or so minutes longer). Serve at once, with the coriander sprinkled on top.

Almond, cardamom and saffron ice-cream

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You’ll need to start a day ahead, but only to give the almonds and saffron a proper soak. You’ll have plenty of egg whites left over, so use those for meringues or macarons; egg whites freeze well, too. Serves six.

350g whole almonds, skin on
3 cardamom pods, gently crushed with the flat of a knife
Just under ¼ tsp saffron threads, plus an extra pinch
215g caster sugar
400ml double cream
Scraped seeds of ¼ vanilla pod
Salt
9 large egg yolks
30g ghee
2 tsp honey

A day ahead, put 250g almonds in a bowl and add the cardamom. Pour over 600ml of cold water, cover and leave overnight at room temperature. Put the saffron in a small bowl with 15g of sugar and two tablespoons of boiling water, stir to dissolve the sugar, cover and leave overnight.

Strain the almonds and cardamom, discarding the water, and put in a blender (a food processor won’t be up to the job, I’m afraid). Add 300ml cold water and blitz to a thick paste. Slowly add 200ml water and blitz for a few minutes, until you are left with a smooth, thick almond “milk”.

Line a fine sieve with two layers of muslin (or a clean tea towel), and pour in the almond mix. Using a wooden spoon, push as much milk as possible out of the pulp; once most of it has passed through, twist the ends of the cloth to squeeze out any remaining liquid. Discard the pulp and pour 450ml of the liquid into a pan (keep any remaining milk: it’s a gorgeous, refreshing drink just as it is). Add the cream, vanilla, a tablespoon of saffron syrup and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, and cook on medium heat for eight minutes. Take off the heat just before it comes to a boil.

Put the egg yolks in a large bowl with 200g sugar and whisk smooth. Whisk a ladleful of the hot cream into the egg mix, then repeat, ladleful by ladleful, until all the cream is incorporated. Tip into a clean pan, put on a medium-low heat, and cook, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, for six to eight minutes, until it has thickened slightly and you can draw a clear line through it with the back of the spoon. Set aside to cool.

Once the mix has cooled down completely, transfer to an ice-cream machine and churn until thick and set (if you don’t have an ice-cream machine, pour the mix into a suitable container, cover and freeze for half an hour, then stir to disperse the ice crystals, and freeze again; repeat at half-hourly intervals for two to three hours). Put half the ice-cream in a cold plastic container and drizzle over half the remaining saffron syrup. Lightly swirl, then top first with the remaining ice-cream and then the remaining saffron syrup. Swirl again, then freeze for at least four hours.

Remove the ice-cream from the freezer 30 minutes before serving. Meanwhile, crush the remaining almonds with the flat of a knife. Put the ghee, a pinch of saffron and a tiny pinch of salt in a small pan, put on a medium-low heat, and add the reserved chopped almonds and the honey. Cook, stirring, for 90 seconds, until golden-brown, then take off the heat. Scoop the ice-cream into bowls, spoon over the honeyed almonds and serve.

Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.

This article was amended on 25 May 2015. An earlier version did not include the amount of ground turmeric needed for the saffron chicken recipe (1 tsp).