Cataplana is the name of a meal and also traditional dish in which it is prepared. It is typical for Portuguese cuisine. It has its roots back in the medieval times. I would say that it's a kind of a medieval pressure cooker. You can prepare in it all sorts of foods: vegetable, meat, fish. But the most common is the sea food. That's how we were introduced to it for the first time in Lisbon. We were intrigued by the unknown word in the menu so we asked the waiter. He brought us really pretty, copper dish and explained that this is the cataplana. When the food was served an amazing aroma spread. It is one the advantages of serving meals in cataplana. Today I have prepared a cataplana with cod. The proportions are not that important.
