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All Kinds of Caper Recipes
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Sauce Ravigote
Sauce Rémoulade
Mayonnaise for Sandwiches
Grilled Snapper in Grape Leaves with Caper-Lemon Sauce
Sea Bass & Scallop Tartare
Kalamata Olive Tapenade with Feta & Chopped Tomato
Creamy Dijon-Caper Dressing
Fresh Tomato Sauce with Capers & OlivesRelated Articles:
What are Capers?
Are Salted Capers Pickled Capers?From French Provincial Cooking (Canada, UK), by Elizabeth David.
Chop very finely a big bunch of mixed parsley, tarragon, and watercress, with chervil and chives when they are available (about 2 oz. altogether), plus 3 anchovy fillets, a tablespoon of capers and 2 or 3 little gherkins or a small pickled cucumber. Stir in about 4 Tbsp of olive oil, a very little tarragon vinegar, and a thread of lemon juice. The sauce should be pretty thick, and can also be further seasoned by the addition of a little mustard. Good with boiled beef and chicken as well as with fish.
Yield: serves four to six people
From French Provincial Cooking, by Elizabeth David.
Pound the yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs to a paste with a drop of vinegar. Stir in a raw yolk, a teaspoonful of French mustard, salt, pepper. Add olive oil (about 1/4 pint) as for a mayonnaise. Flavour with chopped tarragon, chives and capers, allowing about one teaspoonful of each. This makes a sauce of a creamier consistency and less rich than a mayonnaise.
From Wolfgang Puck's Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen (Canada, UK), by Wolfgang Puck.
Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
1/4 tsp salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 cups mild-flavored oil, such as safflower or almond
1 Tbsp lemon juice or wine vinegarInstructions:
Combine egg yolks, salt, pepper, and mustard in a mixing bowl. Whisk together.
Slowly add the oil, whisking all the while. Continue adding oil at a faster speed as the volume increases.
After whisking in all the oil, add the lemon juice. Taste, and correct seasonings.
Yield: makes 2-1/2 cups
Grilled Snapper in Grape Leaves with Caper-Lemon Sauce
From Olive Oil (Canada, UK), by Peggy Knickerbocker and Laurie Smith.
These Greek-inspired grape-leaf bundles taste best when grilled over charcoal. A branch of rosemary thrown on the coals will give the smoke an appealing woodsy scent. Fresh sardines, sea bass fillets, or any firm fish fillets can be substituted for the snapper. Grape leaves from Middle Eastern specialty stores are sold in jars in brine and must be rinsed before using. If you are using fresh grape leaves, remove the tough stems and blanch the leaves in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes. In the winter, these packets can be cooked on a stove-top grill or in a cast-iron skillet, but you'll miss the flavor of the coals.
Ingredients:
28 to 32 grape leaves
1 pound red snapper fillets
Extra-virgin olive oil, preferably Greek for brushing
Shredded zest of 2 lemons
14 to 16 fresh dill sprigs or fennel sprigs
Salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper to tasteCaper-lemon sauce:
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil,
Juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp salt-cured capers, rinsed, drained, and chopped
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh dill or fennel tops
Salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper to tasteInstructions:
Prepare a fire in a charcoal grill. Remove the grape leaves from the brine and rinse in cool water. Dry on kitchen towels. Cut the fish into 2-inch squares about 1/2 inch thick, and remove any errant bones.
On a platter, overlap 2 grape leaves, stem side up. Place a piece of fish in the center, brush the fish with olive oil, scatter on a little lemon zest, and top with a dill or fennel sprig. Season with salt and pepper. Roll up the fish in the leaves, using a little extra olive oil to seal the bundle. If you feel the bundles might come apart, tie with kitchen string. Brush the outsides with a little olive oil.
To make the sauce, in a small bowl, stir together all the ingredients with a fork.
Place the fish bundles on the grill rack, 6 to 8 inches above the hot coals. Cook for about 4 minutes on each side, turning once with a spatula. To test for doneness, open a bundle and test the fish with a fork; it should be opaque in the center. Arrange the bundles on a warmed platter and pour a little of the sauce over the top. Serve the remaining sauce in a bowl on the side. The grape leaves will be soft and once unfolded, can be eaten with the fish. Alternatively, serve the bundles at room temperature.
Yield: serves 4
From The Professional Chef's Art of Garde Manger (Canada, UK), by Frederic H. Sonnenschmidt and John F. Nicolas.
Ingredients:
17 oz. fresh bass
4 scallops
2 cornichons
1 Tbsp capers
1 Tbsp green peppercorns, canned
3 anchovy fillets
1 Tbsp parsley, chopped
3 Tbsp oil
1 tsp brandy
1 dash cayenne
4 egg yolks
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Croutons as needed
Butter as neededInstructions:
Skin fish; remove all bones. Grind fish and scallops through a fine plate. Dice cornichons, capers, green peppercorns, and anchovy fillets fine. Add parsley. Combine oil, brandy, cayenne, and egg yolks and mix with fish. Season. Serve with croutons and fresh butter.
Kalamata Olive Tapenade with Feta & Chopped Tomato
From More Pasta Presto (Canada, UK), by Norman Kolpas.
Tapenade, the quickly blended Provençale dip, gets an Aegean twist in this recipe, which partners an aromatic paste of briny Greek black olives with sweet pieces of ripe tomato and small cubes of the eastern Mediterranean's pungent Greek sheep's milk cheese. You'll find Kalamata olives sold by weight in the deli cases of well-stocked supermarkets, as well as in jars; some brands may be found already pitted. Substitute any other brine-cured Mediterranean olives you like. Serve with spaghetti, linguine, tagliatelle, or other medium-width strands or ribbons.
Ingredients:
3/4 pound pasta
1 pound kalamata olives, pitted (about 2 cups)
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 large cloves garlic
1/2 cup packed fresh Italian parsley
1/4 cup drained capers
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp dried oregano
3/4 pound feta cheese, crumbled or cut into 1/4- to 1/2-inch cubes
4 large roma tomatoes, halved, cored, seeded, and cut into 1/4- to 1/2-inch piecesInstructions:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta to the water and cook until al dente, following the manufacturer's suggested cooking time.
While the pasta cooks, put the olives, olive oil, garlic, parsley, capers, lemon juice, and oregano in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Turning the machine on and off rapidly, pulse the ingredients a few times, then scrape down the work bowl and process continuously until the mixture forms a coarse but uniform paste.
As soon as the pasta is done, drain it and immediately toss with the tapenade and one-half of the feta and one-half of the tomatoes. Top with the remaining feta and serve immediately.
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
From The No-Time-to-Cook Cookbook (Canada, UK), by Joanne Abrams and Marie Caratozzolo.
Ingredients:
1 cup nonfat sour cream
1/4 cup fat-free mayonnaise
1 Tbsp Dijon-style mustard
1-1/2 tsp capers, drained
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepperInstructions:
Place the sour cream, mayonnaise, and mustard in a small bowl, and stir until well mixed. Add the capers and black pepper, and stir well.
Use immediately, or cover and chill until ready to serve.
Yield: 1-1/4 cups
Fresh Tomato Sauce with Capers & Olives
From High-flavor, Low-fat Italian Cooking (Canada, UK), by Steven Raichlen)
This sauce is a rich, chunky tomato sauce made with fresh tomatoes and loaded with flavorful bits of capers and olives. I make this sauce when tomatoes are in season: in the winter here in Florida, in late summer up North. If you can't find luscious ripe fresh tomatoes, use good imported canned plum tomatoes. (You'll need a 28-ounce can.) If you like anchovies, you can always chop a few and add them to the sauce.
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 to 2 cloves garlic, smashed with the side of a cleaver and peeled
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried oregano (or 8 fresh oregano leaves)
3 to 4 large ripe tomatoes (about 2 pounds), peeled and finely chopped (with their juices)
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
2 Tbsp capers, undrained
4 pitted black olives, finely chopped
salt
freshly ground black pepperInstructions:
Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick frying pan. Add the garlic and cook over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the onion. Cook until a rich golden-brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste and oregano and cook for 2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes with their juices and the sugar, capers, olives, salt, and pepper and gently simmer the sauce, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until thick and richly flavored, about 10 minutes. Correct the seasoning, adding salt or sugar as needed.
Yield: makes 3 to 4 cups sauce, enough to serve 6 to 8
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