Saffron Powder, Milled From Super Negin Threads

Dissolve it first. Stir a small pinch into a tablespoon of warm water, milk or rose water and leave it for five minutes, then add the liquid to the dish. Because powder dissolves at once, it suits anything that should be coloured evenly: rice and biryani, cake batter and bread dough, custards, ice cream, saffron milk and karak tea. Add it towards the end of cooking for the best aroma, and avoid frying it in dry oil, which dulls the colour. For a whole dish, follow our saffron rice recipe, or read how to use saffron for amounts by dish.

A small pinch, about a twentieth of a gram, does the work of roughly 20 threads, which is enough to colour rice for four. Powder releases its colour faster than threads, so start with less than you think and add more only after the colour has had five minutes to develop. At that rate a 5 g jar gives around a hundred dishes, so it lasts a home kitchen a long time. Treat these figures as a guide rather than a rule, because every dish, and every pinch, is a little different.

You cannot tell by eye, which is why powder is the easiest form of saffron to fake: ground safflower, turmeric, paprika and dyes all look much the same once milled. So buy powder from a house that sells the same threads whole, where you can see the grade before it is ground, and look for the harvest year on the jar. At home, sprinkle a little onto a glass of water. Real saffron powder releases its colour slowly, as a golden yellow, while dyed powder floods the water red or orange at once. Our real or fake guide walks through the full test.

Keep the jar tightly closed in a cool, dark cupboard, away from the stove, sunlight and steam. Powder has far more surface open to the air than whole threads, so it fades sooner once the jar is opened. Never keep it in the fridge, where moisture can make it clump, and always use a dry spoon. Because powder is best used while it is fresh, buy the size you will get through, and let the harvest year on the label tell you how fresh it is.

Our Super Negin saffron powder is AED 139 for a 5 g jar, about AED 27.80 a gram, VAT included. Saffron powder prices across the UAE vary widely, and a very low price for powder is a good reason to ask what else is in the jar. Delivery is free across the UAE from AED 250, otherwise AED 25, and collection from our boutique at Nation Towers Mall, Abu Dhabi, is always free. For grade-by-grade comparisons, read our guide to saffron price in the UAE.