Capers, who like's em and what good are they?

[Dame Karmen]

Hi folks,

 

I had some Christmas gift baskets of gourmet delights and one of the things

I found (instead of the expected caviar) was a jar of "capers" with olives

etc. I had heard of capers, and thought they were some kind of sea food

NOT! I tried the jar full and it has a very interesting strong pungent-ish taste.

Something I wsn't sure if I liked or not. I love lives Anyways, I did a little search

to find out more about capers and voila ... a plant!!! Of note also is medicinal

uses of it for things like rheumatism, which perked my interest:

 

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/cropfactsheets/caper.html

 

Do you like capers? Use them in cooking? for anything else?

[BP]

Capers rock- absolutely great for cooking. They're little buds from a Mediterranean flower, most commonly seen pickled like yours.

 

They set off chicken (or veal) piccatta, which is one of the favorite recipes the wife and I make. Easy and tasty- BAM!

[Dame Karmen]

BAM!!! Sounds good BP

[Jim Martin]

Every time I hear "capers", I think of Donald Sutherland inspecting the kitchen at the beginning of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers":

 

Sutherland: "You failed the inspection"

 

Cook: "Why????"

 

Sutherland: "You've got rat feces in your food."

 

Cook: "Those are capers!"

 

Sutherland: "They're rat feces."

 

*gag*

[Dame Karmen]

Oh no ... yuk!

 

(Donald Sutherland ... one of my "favorite" actors, if thats the right word. He's sure played some strange roles though)

[Harold Jones]

They are good for this:

 

Ingredients:

1/3 cup olive oil

10 anchovies

8 whole garlic cloves

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

4 medium tomatoes, chopped & seeded with juice, OR one can chopped tomatoes

12 Calamata olives, pitted & halved

2 tsp capers, drained

5 garlic cloves, chopped

1/3 cup chopped parsley

1 Tbsp basil

 

Directions:

In skillet, heat olive oil. Add anchovies and whole garlic cloves. Cook until garlic browns a bit and anchovies fall apart. Add red pepper flakes and cook a few seconds. Add tomatoes, olives and capers. Simmer sauce 30 minutes.

Add chopped garlic, parsley and basil. Simmer a few minutes more. Serve over cooked pasta.

[Colin]

Simple pizza with cheese, sauce, red onions, tuna and capers. Impresses the girlfriend and fools them into believing you can cook.

[120mm]

I've always seen capers as ham garnish, but recently had potato puffs with a single caper inside and they were friggin' awesome!

[Sardaukar]

Just don't overdo...too many of them and dish starts to taste like battery acid, IMHO... Capers are used a lot in Maltese cooking.

[Ivanhoe]

Somewhere I read that on rare occasions a small round stone finds its way into canned capers, resulting in a cracked tooth.

 

I've never used them, myself. Are they one of those things where you should smash them to really get the flavor out, like garlic cloves?

[BP]

Somewhere I read that on rare occasions a small round stone finds its way into canned capers, resulting in a cracked tooth.

 

I've never used them, myself. Are they one of those things where you should smash them to really get the flavor out, like garlic cloves?

 

No, leave whole and use sparingly (like others have said) until you gain an understanding of how many are required to pique your taste. I like quite abit depending on the dish, and have two different types in stock.