Recipe # 1 - Kapari

Kapari

Hi all. Have you heard of kapari? It's a Cypriot side-dish consisting of pickled baby caper shoots.

Yes, in essence kapari is just pickled weed, but it is pretty tasty.

It is also in fact a very easy recipe to make ... so long as you can find the caper shoots.

The Caper Hunt

So basically, in short, I asked someone if I can go caper hunting with them. I think this is a pretty innocent request, nothing that will bring much amusement. But it does for some reason. Apparently, for starters, I don't have the right shoes. Bah, I say. Ballet flats are just fine. The moufflon doesn't need shoes. Plus, I'm Canadian. We chop down trees with our teeth. Wait, that's the beaver. Nevermind. The point is Canadians are tough. Well, they are supposed to be. Anyway:

Let's just say I ended up in a field with weeds up to my hip and being attacked by various prickly plants and fearing snake attacks.

Here is what I learned about how to pick caper shoots:

One, baby caper shoots are very hard to spot because the caper shoots like to grow on cliffs and are hidden away in other tufts of brown branches. (See second, third and fifth photo above.) Second, I discovered if you have been doing this for years, you will find certain spots that you can always go back to in order to find baby caper shoots. I, of course, have no clue what I am looking for. I have no spots to frequent. All I know is that I should avoid things that sting and hiss.

In about one hour, my fellow gather had gathered a bucket-full of baby caper shoots. I, on the other hand, had gathered five wimpy looking stems and various bug bites.

Because the caper shoots tend to grow on cliff-sides, I would recommend carrying a stick with a hook at the end of it in order to pull the plant towards you in order to pick the baby caper shoots. The stick also comes in handy - as I discovered - if you fall off the cliff-side and need someone to pull you up towards safety.

Moral of the story: ballet flats are for the ballet.

OK, so once you have gathered some baby caper shoots, this is what you need to do in four easy steps to make kapari:

(1) Go to a country where lots of caper plants grow. I can't really help too much with this one. I will just say that if you are in Cyprus, the pretty mountain villages in Paphos are a good place to start. You must pick caper shoots when they are young which means that April is kapari-making season. Because the plants are just starting to produce shoots, it can be a bit tricky to look for these things if you haven't done it before.

(2) Once you have your bunch of baby caper shoots, you need to clean away the thorns. Basically, you just pick them away with a knife the same way you would do if you were clearing thorns from a rose bush. 

(3) Place the shoots into a bucket of water. The water needs to cover the shoots. You must cover the bucket with a lid. It helps to put a rock on top of the lid if it means the shoots will be pressed into the water so that it remains covered. Then, leave it for about a week. Preferably in a room you don't often hang out in because after a week the shoots will start to stink. The two pictures in the top row on the right above show the difference between when first adding the shoots to a bucket, and having left the shoots in a bucket after a week.

(4) Once the shoots have been left for a week in water, they will look a bit dull and less greeny as can be seen in the photo. The next step is to drain the shoots and wash them to get rid of the stagnant water. Once you have done this, you need to take a handful of the shoots and place them in a strainer and throw a generous pinch of salt on top. Repeat this step until all the shoots are placed into the strainer with salt on top. Let them rest for five minutes so that the shoots absorb the salt. Then take the shoots and place them into a bottle-container and fill it with vinegar until the shoots are fully covered. And that's really it! 

Enjoy!!

RECIPE

100 baby caper shoots - or as many as you want
1 Cup of Salt
Red Wine Vinegar

Cover the baby caper shoots with water and let them rest in a bucket for one week. At the end of the one week, take the baby caper shoots from the water and rinse well. Take a handful and put into a strainer. Add a handful of salt on top of the shoots. Repeat this step until all the capers have a generous sprinkling of salt on top. Let the shoots absorb the salt for about five minutes. Then place the shoots in a glass bottle or plastic container and fill until the shoots are covered with red wine vinegar.