The title says alternative, but I should really call nasturtium capers a replacement to the otherwise boring capers you get in supermarkets. Nasturtium capers are the business and I just love them, and I don't understand why I've just discovered them now. For any of you who don't know what nasturtiums are, they are that ever-present creeping garden flower that some people might call a weed. Now it's true that its growing habit is very much weed-like, because if you start growing a few nasturtium plants somewhere in your garden, they'll come back year after year. While some people loathe this vigorous behaviour, some people are truly excited about the sheer promise that this yearly cycle entails. Every part of the nasturtium plant is edible, and it might not be very consistent food, but it's absolutely beautiful and so peppery.
At the start of the growing season, one of my all-time favourite things to do is to go to the community garden during a nice sunny day, bring a nice loaf of homemade bread, a nice dressing and a cool drink; all the other ingredients for our impromptu lunch I gather from the garden. Nice crunchy fresh lettuces, pungent pink chive flowers and beautiful red and yellow nasturtium flowers. Toss it in a bowl, put a light dressing over it and you've got summer and sunshine in a bowl. A gorgeous and so satisfying meal, and yet so simple. For that reason alone I would grow nasturtiums and because they attract beneficial insects to your plot and harmful insects away from your actual crops. But it gets better.
In late summer and early autumn the beautiful nasturtium flowers turn into wrinkly seed pods. They're bright to dark green and already look surprisingly like capers. And there's plenty of them! A few plants will probably produce hundreds of pods...ok maybe that's a bit exaggerated but that's what it feels like, and that's the reason why some people call nasturtiums a weed. If you don't pick all those pods, which you won't, then they will get into the ground somehow and sprout again next year. So yes, if you want to grow them in your garden be mindful of where you will put them.
Harvesting nasturtium pods is a real treat, they come off the plant very easily and remind me a bit of harvesting small berries. Once you've got a few handfuls take them into the kitchen and you can pickle them according to your taste. Now we chose the simplest way, cider vinegar and a bay leaf, put into a pickling jar along with the washed capers and then you just have to wait for a few weeks and they're ready. It's honestly the easiest thing you can pickle. But there are recipes where you add other spices, a bit of sugar and warm the whole mixture before adding it to the capers. You can experiment a bit with the variations which are good fun, but honestly the simple recipe makes for a great result as well.
The simple version is quite crunchy, has a really nice peppery taste to it and a great lingering aroma from the bay leaf. The acidity of the cider vinegar rounds it off nicely making it a perfect condiment. They are truly amazing I think, because they are so simple and cost nothing at all and I prefer their flavour and texture to the shop bought alternative, which is more expensive and almost more complicated to get. And because they are that bit different and more interesting they really transform your food or a simple dish. The other day I made tartar sauce with these capers and with homemade mayo, parsley from the garden and some nice lemon zest. Again simple, but so different that it makes for a food experience even just by spreading it on a slice of homemade sourdough bread, which in itself is an experience.
Nasturtium capers, homemade tartar sauce and sourdough bread are such simple things, yet when they're homemade with homegrown ingredients and then combined make for a delicious bite. These are the moments I love the most about food, when something simple inspires you and surprises you.
Why nobody in the UK or Ireland is selling Nasturtium capers baffles me, they're plentiful and can't be more expensive to produce than normal capers, and they're local and thus more sustainable. Maybe I found myself a business idea...
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