We meet the plants of Caper to grow freely in nature. It is a magical plant that grows in places full of sunshine and hot to very hot summers and in very poor soils almost without water. But it insists on being and giving its little flowers -her immature buds- to become the Golden Apple of Discord among humans, birds and ants.
In order to make pickles, we collect, with respect to the plant, its flowers when they are small before they are blooming, its tender leaves and its fruits, and those small, tender, crisp, which are created after the flower is fertilized & inside there are the seeds of the plant.
Yours!
In order to make pickles, we collect, with respect to the plant, its flowers when they are small before they are blooming, its tender leaves and its fruits, and those small, tender, crisp, which are created after the flower is fertilized & inside there are the seeds of the plant.
Yours!
| work: 1h:00′ | time: 2h:30′ | very easy: |
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Capparis the thorny-Capparis spinosa
Caper is a perennial, deciduous plant, a spiny bush of native species that grows all over Greece in the most unlikely places, often inaccessible. From the walls of the houses and the stone walls of the dam, on the straight streets, on the beach and on the pelagian rocks, on the slopes, on the slopes of the cliffs and on the ridges of the mountains! We find it almost everywhere as long as we have our eyes open when we are in the countryside.
It blooms from the beginning of Spring & Summer. Since late April, May, June is a good time to supply an excellent raw material, later in the summer the plants on the rocks are not so tender. It depends of course on the area and the altitude.
From this you collect, with proper attention, the small buds before they are blooming, the tender shoots (with the measure to let the plant grow), the tender leaves and the fruits, the "caperberries" as they are usually called. Sprinkle in water to freeze and keep in 10% brine & vinegar as you want them. It is pickled, cooked, pickled or dry. Used as appetizer, in salads, in the caper meatballs, in the legumes, in the grilled fish or meat, In delicious sauces & it becomes an excellent potty meal along with crustaceans. Wherever it is used, it gives the characteristic peppery, delicate aroma.
In Santorini and other islands, the dry it in the sun instead of using salt. They the salt, but its color becomes more yellow.
 Ingredients (4 small jars)
|  Clean and wash the caper to leave the thin, white fluff on the blossoms. If you want remove part of their stalk or leave it if it is tender. In a saucepan you put enough water to boil and when it starts to boil you remove it from the fire and you drop the capers inside to boil. |  Stir with a pierced spoon for 5'-6' at intervals. |
 Drain it and put it in clean, cool water for a while. Change the water a couple of times in a short time with each other and try to blot out or be as sweet as you want it. |  In a saucepan, add the vinegar and aromatic spices and boil for a few minutes so the spices flavor the vinegar. |  Fill the jars in their ⅓ with flavored vinegar. Place the caper and add a little light, white vinegar if needed. Leave a finger of a blank to which we add 1 tsp salt and olive oil. We close with the cap and shake it up. After 10 days it is ready for consumption. |
Author Zambia G. Sifaki
