"Kapari" - Caper plant

From nature to your table!

Kapari – Caper plant

“Kapari” are the baby caper stems and leaves from a caper plant, pickled in red wine vinegar.

Kapari grows almost everywhere in Cyprus. You can find it on the road side, but you can also find it on the top of a rocky mountain.

You can go out and pick it by yourself, somewhere between April and May. Though it is not an easy thing to do, considering that kapari plant is also full of thorns, I think it’s a very good exercise and a very good chance to escape from stress and leave all your problems behind… even for a few hours.

   Preparation of “kapari”:

So, if you manage to pick enough kapari, bring it at home, make a nice coffee, put your favorite music and go through each stem, one by one and remove all the thorns using a knife or a small pair of scissors.

Put kapari in a container or a bucket filled with water. It is a good practice to place a plate on top of the kapari stems to make sure that they are all merged in the water.

Change the water with fresh one every day for 7-8 days.

The last day drain the kapari stems from water, spread them in a tray and sprinkle some salt on them. Let them sit for half an hour.

Keep kapari in a container ( I prefer glass bottle), and cover it with red wine vinegar. (if you want to reduce the sharpness of vinegar pour one part of vinegar and one part of brine – I like it better this way)

Kapari can be kept for more than a year.

Of course in my house kapari never lasted that long, since I put it in salads or put it in a bowl on its own with just some olive oil and serve it as a side dish with most of our meals.