This lovely saffron and cardamom ice cream was discovered in a August 1993 issue of Gourmet magazine–not to mention, given a prime spot on the very front cover (second from the left). Did I mention that all of this is harvested by hand? Hence, the hefty price tag. Here’s a fun factoid instead! Since each saffron flower can only produce about twelve saffron stigmas, it takes roughly 50,000-75,000 saffron blossoms to produce roughly a pound of dried saffron threads. Pretty unfortunate considering just how amazing it is. This is pretty ironic considering I wrote a five-page paper about it in culinary school.Ī lot of people describe saffron as “hay-like,” earthy, and bitter, none of which sound all that appealing (at least, to me). Saffron is a difficult spice to describe: a fact that I’ve become increasingly more aware of since I’ve written this post. One of my favorite spices.ĭon’t be surprised if you see a lot more of it around here come fall. Plus, anything with cardamom makes me swoon. The ice cream could definitely hold its own without them, but they work so harmoniously together. The cardamom and pistachios are the supporting acts, if you will. It lends such a distinct warmth (not to mention, beautiful golden color) to everything it touches. If you’ve never used saffron in sweet applications, this recipe is a great starting point. The saffron is definitely the star of this ice cream. You will love this unique ice cream recipe! I promise guys, I really tried to resist the heavy cream this week (after all, despite how it may appear, I rarely buy the stuff), but this saffron ice cream absolutely had to be made. Did she really just make another ice cream? Why yes, yes I did. Photograph © Simon Griffiths and Ebrahim Khadem Bayat.Creamy and fragrant saffron ice cream with cardamom and chopped pistachios for aded texture. This is an edited extract from Pardiz by Manuela Darling-Gansser, RRP $60, published by Hardie Grant Books. Serve decorated with extra pistachios, rose petals and gold leaf. Leave to cool, then transfer to an ice-cream machine and churn until frozen, adding the pistachios and frozen cream, broken into shards, before it gets too solid. Take the pan off the heat, add the dissolved saffron, saffron strands and rosewater, and mix everything together well. Put it back over very low heat and, stirring constantly, let it thicken until it coats the spoon.Ĥ. Mix a little of the hot milk through the egg yolks, then pour all of the egg mixture into the hot milk. Beat the egg yolks together with the rest of the sugar until light and fluffy.ģ. Bring the milk to a gentle boil in a heavy-based saucepan a dd half the sugar and let it dissolve in the milk.Ģ. Spread the cream thinly over a sheet of greaseproof paper laid out on a baking tray transfer to the freezer and freeze until solid.
¼ teaspoon ground saffron, dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water, plus a pinch of whole strandsĦ0g pistachios, toasted and roughly chopped, plus extra to decorateġ.
I love the crunch of the frozen cream, the golden colour of the saffron, the pistachio and rose petals. We had it on our first day in Tehran and I fell in love with it.