That was my haul yesterday morning! I foraged through all my plants and came up with just over an ounce of fresh buds of various sizes.
According to the "authorities", the smallest buds are superior and the larger they get the less desirable they become. Hmm, I'm not sure why that should be other than that it takes a lot more time to pick a pound of tiny buds than it does to pick a pound of big buds, so that makes the smaller buds more expensive and we all know that the more expensive something is the better it is. Right? Hmmph.
In the photo below, starting at the top and going around clockwise, my ounce of fresh buds, dried and salted wild capers from Tunisia, my experiment from last year with salting and drying capers, salt preserved capers from Italy. Note the absence of nonpareil capers packed in vinegar. I didn't have any of those on hand because they are my least favorite and I only use them when I can't get salted ones. The vinegar packed capers taste primarily of vinegar to me, cheap yucky vinegar. Salted capers taste like capers. And in my opinion, the biggest salted capers are the tastiest. I like those Tunisian ones straight from the jar, a chewy, salty, capery burst of flavor. Fantastic fried! They are, however, hideously expensive.
So, I'm on a quest to make something like those Tunisian Wild Mountain Capers. My Croatian plants produce big fat buds and that is what makes up the bulk of my first harvest this year. I've put them into a brine solution and will let them sit in that a few days, then I'm going to dry them. I experimented with that process last year. The buds are tasty, but sun drying them too long bleaches the color so I need to experiment with the drying process this year. Last year I had buds mainly from my Tuscan plants, smaller buds that I think will do better simply preserved in salt without the drying step.
What an inspiration!! I want to salt-cure olives this winter, and maybe a caper bush or so, along with a tea plant, are in my future.
ReplyDeleteOh, I think is the coolest thing you have shared yet. And that's saying a lot! I have only had vinegared capers, didn't know about the salted ones. Do you wash off the salt before using? Can you use them the same way as the vinegary ones? I am so intrigued!!
ReplyDeleteStefaneener, I haven't tried olives yet. Nor tea, but I'd probably tackle olives before tea. A friend let me pick olives from her tree once, but the olives had olive fruit fly maggots - yuck.
ReplyDeleteKaren, anything that you would use vinegary capers in would be better (imo) with salted capers. I usually rinse the salt off and then give them a bit of a soak before using them. Sometimes I just throw the salted ones into the dish and then don't add any other salt, works best with recipes where the capers are cooked into the dish rather than scattered on top.
Wow, Michelle! You are really making me want to grow capers! Do you think they would do well near the coast? Thanks for sharing, Jackie.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to have your own salted capers. I agree with you about the vinegar ones. I can't wait to get some capers growing in our garden, perhaps in a pot after reading your last post.
ReplyDeleteThis is so awesome! I love that you make your own preserved capers. Can't wait to see how they turn out...
ReplyDeleteWE don't know anything about capers. I do enjoy them in cooking, wish we could grow our own too.
ReplyDeleteJackie, there was a vendor at the Barnyard farmer's market last summer (Salsi Ranch) selling local grown capers (salt cured) and if I remember correctly (fat chance) they were from Watsonville. So, if they can grow capers there, I imagine that you could grow them where you are.
ReplyDeleteChaiselongue, the bigger the pot the better.
Nikki, I'll keep you all updated about my caper experiments as they go along, but don't hold your breath too long!
Randy, if your winters aren't too cold you could give them a try...
This is all really interesting. For some reason I thought capers came from a plant related to chrysanthemums, but now I see it's a totally different plant. What a great idea to try growing and curing your own!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recent comments on garlic rust. Yes, now that I look on a map and see where you are, I suspect you are in one of the garlic rust places in the US.
When they were growing a lot of garlic around Gilroy (in the 1980s?) they really went mad and kept replanting intensively on the same ground which led to a lot of diseases which are still well established in the area. Another one you should watch out for in your garden is white rot. If this becomes established in your garden, you will never get rid of it. White rot can survive at least 25 years in the ground.
I am really curious as to whether you figured out how to mimic the dried Tunisian capers. They are so good, and thanks to you, I just ordered my first batch of seeds to start growing my own capers! Would love to know if you've found a way...
ReplyDeletecleverbean, I found that simply spreading the drained cured caper buds on a tray, I like the extra-large one for this, and air drying them resulted in a tasty salty caper much like the Tunisian ones. I put them outside in a shady spot during the day and brought them in at night. Sun drying them turned them an unappetizing brown color but they still tasted good.
ReplyDelete