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Pickled Nasturtium Seeds
Use green nasturtium seeds, and in picking retain a short length of stem on each. Lay the seeds in cold salted water for two days (two tablespoons salt to one quart water), then place them in cold water for another day. Drain well and place the seeds in a glass jar, cover with vinegar heated to the boiling-point, and close the jar tightly. In a few days the seeds will be ready to use. They are an excellent substitute for capers.
A straightforward vinegar pickle that turns the immature seed pods of garden nasturtium into something very close to capers. The only real skill is in the picking.
- Pick the pods youngUse the plump green seed pods that form just after the flowers drop, while they are still soft enough to dent with a fingernail. Once they yellow and harden they turn woody and no amount of brining will fix it.
- Salt ratioTwo tablespoons of salt to one quart of water is roughly a 4 percent brine. Use plain non-iodized salt; the anti-caking agents in table salt can cloud the liquid.
- Why the three-day soakThe salt draws out some of the mustard-oil sharpness and firms the pods, and the day in plain water rinses the excess salt back out. Skipping the freshwater day is likely to leave the pickle noticeably salty for use as a caper substitute.
- Vinegar strengthUse a vinegar labelled 5 percent acidity, which is standard for cider and white distilled vinegar. Check the label rather than assuming, since acidity varies between types.
- SealingFilling a jar with boiling vinegar and capping it is not a canning process, whatever seal appears as it cools. Treat these as a refrigerator pickle: cool the jar, then keep it in the refrigerator, where the acidity will hold them for months.
- StemsThe short stem left on each pod gives you something to hold. It stays on through the pickling and is edible.
- Yield and useA cup of pods fills roughly a half-pint jar. Use them as capers: whole in tartar sauce, brown butter for fish, or chopped into a vinaigrette. The flavour is more peppery than a true caper, so use slightly less.
- Timing"A few days" is optimistic for full flavour. They are edible after three or four days and considerably better after two to three weeks.