Capers

[gdenby]

My wife has always really enjoyed capers, so we always have them in the house.

Yes, smaller is considered better. I've read the caper buds develop so rapidly they can be picked on a daily basis.

I bought a jar of salted ones a few years ago. I liked the texture better than the more common brine and vinegar type. I suppose that because I previously had them fluid packed, I associated the pickle like taste with the caper. So the salted ones didn't seem as flavorful. I recall them being vaguely like swiss chard, or a milder beet leaf, but slightly tart.

Last year I bought a jar of caper-dill relish for my wife, which she loved as a spread w. various kinds of meat sandwiches. Its no longer in production, so currently she is using a caper and almond pesto instead.

I tried duplicating the caper-dill relish w/o much success. So used it to make smoked salmon and cream cheese spread.

It occurs to me that capers and dill w. sumac added might be quite nice.

Of course, used on pizzas and a few tossed w. salad greens are standards.

[Shelby]

I love capers.  I always have the vinegar ones on hand (reminds me to get a jar from my stash in the basement...I had kinda forgotten about them).  I used to always put them on lettuce salads.  Like them on pizza.  Like them tossed with tuna and pasta.  Good in potato salad.  I've had the salted kind.....it could be because they were bigger than my normal vinegar ones, but I didn't care for them as much.  But, yeah, they last a super long time.

[gfweb]

I use them mostly in pan sauces for chicken veal and fish. The vinegar ones. 

[ElainaA]

I use capers regularly but only the ones in vinegar. I add them to pasta sauces and tuna salad. Thanks to Shelby I will now try them in potato salad too. Trader Joe's capers are really good and a really good deal (Sorry @liuzhou - Somehow I doubt that there is a Trader Joe's in China. Yet. )

[liuzhou]

1 minute ago, ElainaA said:

I use capers regularly but only the ones in vinegar. I add them to pasta sauces and tuna salad. Thanks to Shelby I will now try them in potato salad too. Trader Joe's capers are really good and a really good deal (Sorry @liuzhou - Somehow I doubt that there is a Trader Joe's in China. Yet. )

 

Yeah that's pretty much how I use them, too.

 

I think it will be decades before TJ turns up in China, if ever. I'm always amused by the American expats who get excited when Walmart announce they are opening a branch in some Chinese city. They seem to think they will suddenly have unlimited access to western food.

I have no respect for Walmart as a company, but I'll give them they aren't dumb enough to open a supermarket in China without selling what the Chinese want rather than what the half dozen Americans in town want.

[TicTac]

If packed in salt, be prepared to soak them to get rid of some salinity.  I prefer the large ones in vinegar.  So many uses for them -

 

- Parsley salad w capers/red onion

- Tuna salad w dill

- Dill/Sweet mustard/caper/balsamic sauce for gravlax

 

The list goes on......

[HungryChris]

I use them in quite a few things. Piccata sauces , tuna salad or just sprinkled on a salad. I will add them to bruschetta as well. I very much like them with smoked salmon, cream cheese and chopped Bermuda onion on a small roll.

HC

 

[FrogPrincesse]

I love capers too. I buy the pickled ones from Trader Joe's. I use them in tapenade, with fish for browned butter sauce, in salsa verde, as an accompaniment to smoked salmon or roasted bone marrow...

I've only recently found the salt-preserved variety, but haven't tried them yet.

[teonzo]

Being Italian I use capers in a boatload of dishes, even a plated dessert and a praline.

 

My favourite one is sauteed mackerel with eggplant puree and capers. I make the eggplant puree this way: cook a couple of whole eggplants in the oven at 180° C for 60-90 minutes without piercing them, this way the skin will become hard and the inner flesh will steam and remain soft; after cooked cut in half and pick the cooked flesh with a spoon, put eggplant flesh in a bowl, blitz with hand held mixer, add olive oil while blitzing until you get your preferred texture, then season with salt and whatever pepper you prefer. This is my favourite way to cook eggplants.

 

Another favourite is a risotto with cantaloupe and capers. Usually risottos don't fit well during summer cause they tend to be on the heavy side of food, this one is light and refreshing, it's even vegan. Prepare a stock using only the cantaloupe peels. Cut away the orange cantaloupe flesh, cut it in 1 cm dices and reserve in the fridge. After this you are left with the peels, which have an inner green side and the brown outer side. Cut away the brown side and discard it, keep the green side and use it to make a stock (gentle simmer for 1.5-2 hours). When the stock is ready then dry toast the rice: just put rice in the risotto pot, no fats nothing, just rice. Toast rice on low flame, stirring about every minute, until it's toasted (as usual for risottos, just avoid fats onions whatever). Don't deglaze with any wine, just start pouring the cantaloupe peel stock and cook as a normal risotto. About 2 minutes before the end of cooking add the cantaloupe dices. When risotto is cooked then turn off the heat and let it rest in the pot for about 2 minutes. Then add the de-salted capers (don't exaggerate since they easily overpower the cantaloupe) and "whisk" with olive oil (I'm not good in translating from Italian to English, google translator gives "whisk" as translation for "mantecare" but I'm sure it is the wrong one and don't remember the correct one). Season with salt (if needed, due to the capers) and black pepper. This risotto is ultra easy to do, very flavourful and refreshing. People tend to be puzzled when hearing about cantaloupes in a risotto, but they always appreciate it after tasting.

 

Personally I stay away from capers in vinegar, they loose their personality. Only salted ones, the smaller the better as people already wrote.

Caper fruits (see this photo) are a delicacy, but I suppose they are really hard to find outside Italy.

If you buy salted capers, always remember to rinse them quickly 4-5 times, then soak them for about 10 minutes. I live alone and I use a 500 g package in about a year, but as I wrote I use them a lot. If you can find only 1 kg packages then consider using some of them as a gift, they are totally easy to repackage and can be an appreciated gift for Chinese people into exotic stuff.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[MetsFan5]

@teonzo those caper fruits are generally refered to as caper berries in the US and aren't that hard to find. My old roommate and I would eat them by the jar on a weekly basis! I love them. 

[kayb]

I use capers a lot, most recently chopped in a sauce with anchovy filets and olive oil, seasoned with Aleppo pepper, that I used on cauliflower I roasted (see recent post in Dinner thread). The vinegar ones are generally easier to find than the salted ones, but I agree with the above assessments on difference in taste. I like both. The vinegar ones, particularly used in a tuna salad, remind me of the taste of cornichons.

 

@teonzo, thank you for the description/method of the cantaloupe risotto. I dearly love cantaloupe, so I will be trying this!

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I don't use capers often, however my current jar is the salted variety.  First time I've tried salted capers.  I like the taste of capers in vinegar just fine, but in comparison to salted the texture is a little muddy.  I should cook with capers more frequently.

 

[cdh]

The vinegar that they're pickled in is amazing when mixed with brown butter... chop up a few capers in there too, but the vinegar + brown butter is just a magical flavor even if no capers leave the jar.

[liuzhou]

9 hours ago, teonzo said:

Being Italian ...

 

Do you know what the grade numbers mean? I've seen grades, 7, 11, 13, 15, and I've searched in both English and Italian but can't find any explanation?

These are what I'm looking at.

Edited February 5, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[teonzo]

I haven't found any regulation talking about that. I checked my capers package and it's not written there, so I'm pretty sure it's not required by law, at least here in Italy.

Just checked the producer's catalogue and the info in Italian is "calibro" (= caliber / size / diameter). I suppose it's a label info used by this particular producer to state the caper size, 7 indicates capers that pass through a sieve with 7 mm holes, 13 for 13 mm holes.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Franci]

I grew up with my grandfather capers. In his garden, on the rocks surrounding his house was full of capers plants, love the flowers! and prickly pears cactus.

He used to cure them in salt and with time the salt will melt in a brine. My cousin, who inherited my grandfather's house, is keeping up with the capers production for the family. The store bought capers are a poor, poor comparison.

There are some dishes that for me are missing without them, unfortunately, in  my half chinese house are not too popular...I'm sure in a past thread on egullet on cucina from Puglia there are tons on my recipes: stuffed eggplants, lots of capers on top. The stuffed onion focaccia with capers and olives. On top of friselle with tomatoes. Anything "arracanato" = make a panure with breadcrumbs, oil, garlic, chopped parsley, grated pecorino, some capers, to sprinkle on top of potatoes/onion gratin. Anything eggplants. Anything cephalopod with wine and tomatoes. Peppers. So typical in stuffed vegetables. In tuna and tomato salads, onion.

Edited February 5, 2017 by Franci (log)

[liuzhou]

3 hours ago, teonzo said:

I haven't found any regulation talking about that. I checked my capers package and it's not written there, so I'm pretty sure it's not required by law, at least here in Italy.

Just checked the producer's catalogue and the info in Italian is "calibro" (= caliber / size / diameter). I suppose it's a label info used by this particular producer to state the caper size, 7 indicates capers that pass through a sieve with 7 mm holes, 13 for 13 mm holes.

 

Teo

 

 

But anything that passes through a 7 mm hole would also pass through a 13 mm hole. Even quicker.

Edited February 5, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

1 minute ago, liuzhou said:

 

But anything that passes passes through a 7 mm  hole would also pass through a 13 mm hole. Even quicker.

I am guessing you have tongue and in cheek?

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

I am guessing you have tongue and in cheek?

 

Me? Who? What? What?

 

But really. I'm still none the wiser.

I did see some Spanish salted capers on an online Chinese shopping site today, but they were 4 times the price of the most expensive Italian ones though thankfully they didn't mention sieve hole sizes!

Edited February 5, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[blue_dolphin]

I know Wikipedia isn't the source of all info but I found these size-names interesting:

 

From Wikipedia:

Quote

Capers are categorized and sold by their size, defined as follows, with the smallest sizes being the most desirable: non-pareil (up to 7 mm), surfines (7–8 mm), capucines (8–9 mm), capotes (9–11 mm), fines (11–13 mm), and grusas (14+ mm). If the caper bud is not picked, it flowers and produces a caper berry.

 

[teonzo]

5 hours ago, liuzhou said:

But anything that passes through a 7 mm hole would also pass through a 13 mm hole. Even quicker.

 

Don't speak too loud, otherwise capers will hear it.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Smithy]

There are multiple ways of sorting roundish objects by size: pass them through a series of screens or sieves with successively larger holes, or pass them over rollers with successively greater gaps between them.  I don't know how it's done with capers, but with oranges the smallest fall through the first set of rollers and are directed to one packing line; the remainder go over another set of rollers with a larger space that allows the next size set through, and so on.  So far all I've learned about caper handling is that they're so tender they must be hand-picked.  I hope someone who knows the packing side of it will weigh in.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I went and got my jar and looked:  they are labeled medium size Salina capers from Salina Island, Sicily, Italy.  The ingredients are listed as "Salina caper, salt."

 

[teonzo]

12 hours ago, Smithy said:

There are multiple ways of sorting roundish objects by size: pass them through a series of screens or sieves with successively larger holes, or pass them over rollers with successively greater gaps between them.  I don't know how it's done with capers, but with oranges the smallest fall through the first set of rollers and are directed to one packing line; the remainder go over another set of rollers with a larger space that allows the next size set through, and so on.  So far all I've learned about caper handling is that they're so tender they must be hand-picked.  I hope someone who knows the packing side of it will weigh in.

 

Usually this kind of sorting is made using an oblique (very few degrees) vibrating table, with holes on the floor with increasing diameter (in this case first section 7 mm, second section 9 mm, so on). Under each section there is a different chute to collect sorted items of each size.

I'm pretty sure @liuzhou got it immediately and was joking on my badly written explanation, I was joking too.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Smithy]

Thanks for the explanation about the vibrating table.  I suspected the jokes, but I still wanted to know the process - and now I do!