A cataplana is an item of

cookware Cookware and bakeware is food preparation equipment, such as cooking pots, pans, baking sheets etc. used in kitchens. Cookware is used on a stove or range cooktop, while bakeware is used in an oven. Some utensils are considered both cookware ...

used to prepare

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

seafood dishes, popular in the country's

Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has it ...

region. The cataplana is also the name of a typical dish of Algarve region as well as a Portuguese item of cookware used to make the dish and a method of cooking using it. The cooking vessel can be used for cooking a wide variety of ingredients, but prawns, clams and pork cataplanas are the most popular menus of the cataplana dish. According to ''

The Oxford Companion to Food ''The Oxford Companion to Food'' is an encyclopedia about food. It was edited by Alan Davidson and published by Oxford University Press in 1999. It was also issued in softcover under the name ''The Penguin Companion to Food''. The second and th ...

'', the most famous dish made in a cataplana is '' amêijoas na cataplana'' (clams in cataplana). The cataplana is traditionally made of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

and shaped like two clamshells hinged at one end and able to be sealed using a clamp on each side of the assembly, enabling the vessel to function as a crude

pressure cooker Pressure cooking is the process of cooking food under high pressure steam and water or a water-based cooking liquid, in a sealed vessel known as a ''pressure cooker''. High pressure limits boiling, and creates higher cooking temperatures which c ...

. Cataplanas can also be made of

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

. As a typical dish from Algarve cooked in a metallic cataplana whose ingredients include onion, red and green peppers and tomatoes, cooked in olive oil, garlic, tarragon, parsley and white wine, among other ingredients like cubed pork,

chouriço Chorizo (, from Spanish ; similar to but distinct from Portuguese ) is a type of pork cured meat originating from the Iberian Peninsula. In Europe, chorizo is a fermented, cured, smoked meat, which may be sliced and eaten without cooking, or ...

sausage, chicken, fish, prawns, clams or other seafood which result in a plethora of variations, the dish called cataplana is always made using the traditional item of cookware also called a cataplana, which steams the ingredients during the final part of the cooking process.

References

Cooking vessels Portuguese cuisine Seafood dishes Pork dishes Algarve {{Portugal-cuisine-stub

See also

References