As I mentioned below in my Independence Days challenge post, I have read that one can make a faux caper from Nasturtium seeds. I have grown nasturtiums every year since we got the house and with the abundant growth of this year’s variety I figured I would give it a shot. I worked from the brine recipe here, but I halved the recipe and omitted the celery seeds (because I don’t keep them stocked). After boiling and cooling the brine I put about two cups of nasturtium seeds into a quart jar and stuck it in the back of the fridge to percolate. We will see what the true result is in about 4 weeks. I am going to give them ample time to pickle before passing judgment.
I know next to nothing about making capers but I suspect these will not be anywhere remotely similar. With standard capers, from the taste I suspect it is a much simpler salt and water brine. The copious amounts of white wine vinegar, onion and lemon in this recipe I think are going to turn out a very different product. I already know the texture is going to be pretty far removed from capers, considering capers are immature flowers and these are seeds. Perhaps if I get supermotivated today I will go brave the aphids and pick another harvest of nasturtium seeds to brine in a simpler concoction for a taste testing in September.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Ilori // Jul 17, 2015 at 9:51 am
not such a silly idea this sounds eceellxnt. I lost all my nasturtiums just died off no idea why. If I ever manage to grow more will try this idea.Those nasturtium flowers would make a fabulous subject to paint too .I adore paintings of flowers perhaps a composition of those flowers, some green seed pods and a perfect glass jar of your cider vinegar pickles with sunlight dancing off the glass might not be such a silly idea, honestly.
2 Maribel // Dec 16, 2015 at 1:28 pm
I didn’t realise nsuruttiams had capers – this is such an interesting post! I don’t have any nsuruttiams this year, but all the more reason to grow them again next year!!
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