Photo: Courtesy Bora Panduku

I once thought that a caper was a pickled green peppercorn. They look alike, right? Well, sort of. Green peppercorns are the immature fruit of a flowering vine, primarily grown in Vietnam, India and Brazil. Capers, on the other hand, are the pickled bud of the caper bush – plants that thrive in Mediterranean climates.

How do you feel about capers? There’s something so unique about their briny, pungent flavor.

Today’s Food Therapy is a great way to try cooking with capers – Shrimp with Honey, Sherry and Capers from Bora Panduku of Lola Cooks. Bora’s recipe balances the strong flavor of capers that puts some people off. Her recipe is just a tad sour, sweet, deep and shrimpy.

Bora grew up in Newton, and spent several years in Boston. She’s since moved to Los Angeles, where a dish from the Blu Jam Cafe inspired this rendition. She said she liked the cafe’s shrimp so much, that it became one of the few recipes she has tried to recreate from a restaurant menu.