Cataplana

The cataplanas is a Portuguese copper or iron pot with a tight-fitting lid and two handles.

Especially on the Portuguese coast, he has long been the main cookware and is still used today, especially for gentle cooking / steaming fish and shellfish dishes. The word cataplanas is also sometimes used for a stew with mussels and pork which was cooked in such a pot. Today the cataplanas is also popular as a typical Portugal souvenir with tourists.

Function

Originally cataplanas was used either directly on an open fire or on furnaces with coal - or wood-fired. The pot itself is closed with clamps and works similar to a pressure cooker now. Since the bottom of the traditional Cataplana is rounded, modern cooking on electric stoves ( ceramic hob ) is not possible. Recently there is also the cataplanas stainless steel with smooth thermal base for all types of stoves ( gas, electric, ceramic, induction). They are found as " cataplanas inox ".