Cooking rice with Saffron.. rice turns red instead of yellow?

Perhaps you're using to much. A little pinch should turn the rice yellow. A little more kind of a orangish-yellow. If you did use just a little pinch, it may be one of the cousins to saffron, colors your rice but doesn't really impart the same flavor. Best way to tell is the price. Saffron is very expensive. I paid over $5 for a little bottle that had about a half teaspoon saffron stemens in it. But, they have the cheaper version, safflower, that for a couple of dollars you get a fair sized bottle full.