Ingredient: Capers
Category: Herbs, Spices & Seasoning
Season: All
The caper (Capparis spinosa L.) is a perennial spiny shrub that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and big white to pinkish-white flowers.
A caper is also the pickled bud of this plant.
The bush is native to the Mediterranean region, growing wild on walls or in rocky coastal areas throughout.
The plant is best known for the edible bud and fruit (caper berry) which are usually consumed pickled.
The salted and pickled caper bud (also called caper) is often used as a seasoning or garnish.
Capers are a common ingredient in Mediterranean cuisine.
The mature fruit of the caper shrub is also prepared similarly and marketed as caper berries.
The buds, when ready to pick, are a dark olive green and about the size of a kernel of maize.
They are picked, then pickled in salt, or a salt and vinegar solution.
Capers are a distinctive ingredient in Sicilian and southern Italian cooking, used in salads, pizzas, meat dishes and pasta sauces.
Italian cuisine dishes are chicken piccata and salsa puttanesca.
They are often served with cold smoked salmon or cured salmon dishes (especially lox and cream cheese).
Capers are sometimes substituted for olives to garnish a martini.
Capers are categorised and sold by their size, as follows, with the smallest sizes being the most desirable:
Non-pareil (0-7 mm), surfines (7-8 mm), capucines (8-9 mm), capotes (9-11 mm), fines (11-13 mm), and grusas (14+ mm).
Unripe nasturtium seeds can be substituted for capers; they have a very similar texture and flavour when pickled.
These little Mediterranean flower buds, sometimes tiny, sometimes fat and squashy, are an acquired taste, but do persevere.
Capers add a lively piquancy to all kinds of dishes, especially sauces and fish.
You can buy them either preserved in salt or in vinegar.
Place them in a sieve and rinse under cold water before using them.
Capers in vinegar will keep well once opened, provided the vinegar covers them completely.
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