Capers - an overlooked tool

Today I prepared chicken piccata for lunch, a simple dish of thin chicken pieces dressed in a lemony sauce accented by capers.

• Incidentally, its much better to slice the chicken rather than pound it out with a mallet, as most recipes suggest. Pounding can be useful with veal (lots of connective tissue) but a bad idea for chicken, you'll just damage it.
  

Anyway, in an effort to assist those farmers who raise capers, and to those who have never heard of a caper, I'm dedicating today's entry to them.

Capers are tiny immature flower buds that are usually pickled and found in very small jars next to olives and pickles in your supermarket. Sometimes they are kept next to cocktail onions, watermelon pickles, artichoke hearts and the like.

Lots more info about capers is available here.

Why not try using them on a favorite dish of your own? Some recipes call for rinsing the capers before use (I usually do this myself), and others just toss them in.

They add a delightful piquant flavor to dishes, and also a bit of saltiness, so you might have to adjust your seasonings slightly.

It's an actual fact that the Scottish dish haggis has at least one song singing it's praises, but the poor caper is just constantly overlooked.

Here's to you, caperberry!