Sprinkle a little here and there and voila, it suddenly becomes expensive and sophisticated. It’s always magical whenever I use saffron in food, using it in food make me feel like an alchemist as I brood over the thin nest of burgundy strands and carefully draw out the merest shreds that turn into a cloudburst of deep golden delight the moment they pool into a spoonful of warm milk.

While there is magic using saffron and enjoying the sheer flavor of the spice, there is also, for me, some hint of unmistakable tragedy and I suspect that is the reason why I have so much vintage bottled saffron in my possession. So much goes into producing so little, that I came to know about when I once went to Srinagar, when I was I college. There, we stopped by the fabled saffron fields being harvested in full bloom. In a shed, at the far end of these fields, freshly plucked flowers lay stacked and ready for picking. Here too many Kashmiri women carefully plucking away at these delicate stamens. A large mountain of discarded flowers lay behind them. As they paused to gaze at us, our guide asked them to show us what they had yielded for that day. Pale hands, stained darkly with the color of saffron held out a tablespoon of the precious yield. It was tragic to see so little come out of many flowers and so much work, since than I have viewed saffron in the same image in which staunch vegetarians view animal slaughter and saffron.
Uses of saffron:

• Flavoring and coloring: It gives off bright reddish yellow color with a powerful aroma and vaguely bitter and exotic taste.

• Healing properties and medicinal value: It has been known to treat fevers, depression, enlargements of the spleen and liver, as digestive stimulants, in sedatives and as an abortifacient when used in large quantities.

• Used in auspicious occasion: It is also used in auspicious occasions to ‘tilak’.

The color of saffron in festive sweets especially would mean if I give up eating saffron, I might as well give up on finding the true meaning of life. So I said, scatter you saffron while you can, and presto, it’s suddenly become the food of angels.