How to Cook, Store, and Serve the World's Most Expensive Spice: Saffron

If you’ve ever visited a producer in, say, Kashmir, as I have, and watched workers, their fingers stained orange, pluck tiny threads from purple flowers, you’ll understand why saffron is the world’s most expensive spice. Cultivated for four millennia from Afghanistan through Iran and into Spain, saffron flavors many opulent dishes: Persian pilafs, Spanish paella, French bouillabaisse, Moroccan pigeon pie, and Indian desserts like gulab jamun, where it melds with rosewater in a heady syrup. Sweet-...