Grow Your Own Magazine

The frost finally got the leaves on my nasturtiums. I pulled one plant up and lo and behold managed to gather about a pint of green seedpods!

My dear old Dad used to pickle these instead of capers so I thought I'd give it a go. I have cleaned them all and split them up from there original tri lobed pods into individual pods, coated them with salt and will pickle them in white wine vinegar tomorrow.
They taste peppery when eaten raw but I seem to remember they take on a sour taste when pickled.
If they are dried and ground up they can be used as a pepper substitute methinks, or is that something else?

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

I ate some raw, didn't like the texture, although I love the flowers and leaves in a sarnie.

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

PICKLED NASTURTIUM SEEDS (MOCK CAPERS)

The recipe I have from an old Good Housekeeping booklet from c. 1950 calls for:-

Nasturtium seeds
Spiced vinegar made with:-
1/2 teaspoonful salt
1 bay leaf
3 peppercorns
to each half pint if vinegar.

Pick the seeds on a dry day, wash them and examine them. Dry them well and put them in a cool oven, or in the sun to dry them for three to four days. Put the ingredients for the spiced vinegar in a pan, bring to the boil, remove from the heat and infuse for at least 30 minutes before using. Pack the seeds into jars, cover with the cold spiced vinegar and cap securely. Use as a substitute for capers.

valmarg

They mainly taste of spiced vinegar though! (However, so do capers!)

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Some days you're the statue, some days you're the pigeon!

vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated July 7th 2008

What are rich man's capers then??
Tx

Proper ones!

__________________
My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

There you go tootles, follow the link!

Caper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

__________________
My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Another by gum! I didn't know you could eat these! Bernie aka DDL

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

the smell puts me off em, i use them mainly as sacrifical plants as blackfly and slugs love em

I must admit that once I'd had real capers (only about 3 years ago) I didn't think the nasturtium mock capers cut the mustard! It's like dandelion root coffee. It's only acceptable until you try REAL coffee.

__________________
Some days you're the statue, some days you're the pigeon!

vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated July 7th 2008