The year was 2000. Together with several friends, we had rented a restored medieval watchtower/farmhouse in Fiano, Italy. You may recall The Night of the Shawls from the same trip.
 |
| The farmhouse we rented in Fiano, coated in star jasmine. |
Our landlady’s mother, Mrs. X, lived in an ancient farmhouse a few paces away. As mentioned before, she was not accustomed to American renters actually cooking, or even being interested in the foodways of her country.
One day, she was out in the garden with her little dachshund, Artie Shaw, named for the jazz singer. I could see she was picking something from a cascading plant growing from a stone retaining wall, a prominent feature of that mountainous land. I went over to find out what she was up to.
 |
| Mark snapped this photo of caper bushes in Siracusa, Sicilia. |
“Capperi,” she told me. Capers. I immediately asked her how one turns them from flower buds into the little balls of flavor we love so much? “Seguimi!” she said, “Follow me.”
In her kitchen, she had a jar on the counter filled with a mix of vinegar, water, and salt. To this simple brine, she added a few caper buds each day. When the liquid was filled with the buds, she put it in the fridge.
Naturally, upon our return to the States, I insisted we get caper bushes (capparis spinosa) which I found, bare root, online in California. We tried growing them in Maine and they did fine till the first hard frost. Not the right place to grow capers.
After we moved to Tucson, I got another bare-root caper plant from the same source, San Marcos Growers. (This is not a sponsored post - they have no idea I’m writing about them!) For five years we’ve been enjoying the elegant blossoms. Now that the plant is thriving, for the first time, we are harvesting the buds and brining our own capers.
Below is the recipe for brining them and then a simple recipe (thanks to Stefano Arturi, Italian Home Cooking) for how to use them.
It’s simply the best caper I’ve pulled off in a while.
~ David
Brined Capers
1/2 cup mild white wine vinegar or herbed vinegar
- I used Kressi, a Swiss vinegar
1/2 cup water - I used spring water
1 tablespoon sea salt
caper buds
Mix the vinegar, water, and salt together in a pint jar with a tight-fitting lid, stirring until the salt is dissolved. Start picking caper buds. After you pick them, rinse and pat dry, then add them to the jar. They will be go in bright green, and will turn a dark, yellowish green by the second day. Seal the lid and keep in a dark, cool place. When you have picked enough capers to fill the brine, place the jar in the fridge. They can be used after 7 days of brining, but you may need to accumulate them longer than that before you’ll have enough to use.
For a recipe beyond the familiar chilled salmon with capers, here is a high-flavored but comforting 19th-century British hors d’oeuvre or snack, with the charming name:
Scotch Woodcock
From Stefano Arturi, Italian Home Cooking
Per person:
1 slice homemade bread
softened unsalted butter
salt
freshly ground pepper
1 egg 2 anchovy fillets 1 teaspoon capers, drained
Toast the bread. While it is toasting, scramble the egg in a generous amount of butter, seasoning it lightly with salt and pepper.
When the toast is done, butter it generously and top it with the scrambled eggs, then crisscross the eggs with the anchovy fillets and sprinkle with capers.
Labels: brine, brining, capers, capparis spinosa, capperi, italian home cooking
