Seafood Cataplana

Seafood Cataplana

  By Times Staff Gloucester Daily Times

A cataplana is both an item of cookware used to prepare Portuguese seafood dishes, and what the dishes are called.
The cataplana is traditionally made of copper and shaped like two clamshells hinged at one end and able to be sealed using a clamp on either side of the assembly. If you don’t have a cataplana, a wok with a lid or cast iron covered casserole could be used.
Cataplanas are favorite of customers dining at the Azorean Restaurant, 133 Washington St. in Gloucester. Head chef and general manager Manny Lapa and his brother Rui, a sous chef, grew up in mainland Portugal but their mother was Azorean, so they know Portuguese and Azorean cooking.
This recipe comes from Manny Lapa.