TGIFood

Wok next? Cataplana prawns with an Asian kick, that’s what

The wet paste, left, and the prawns cooking, right. (Photos: Tony Jackman)

18 Sep 2024

Treat a cataplana like a wok for a seafood treat in the Portuguese style with a hint of Asia in it too.

Imagine a sort-of wok that’s thought to be the forerunner of the pressure cooker. Without its lid you can use it just as you would a wok. Put the lid on and, just like a pressure cooker, your food is cooked super quick.

We’re talking about a cataplana, the ancient Portuguese clam-like cooking vessel that I first encountered in southern Portugal almost a year ago. I wrote about it in this piece, where you can find out more about this remarkable piece of kitchen equipment.

In case you missed them, here are the four parts of my series about that amazing trip to Portugal:

Pastéis de nata, tremors and saudade at the Gateway to History

Bochechas and human bones in the land of the Black Pig

Here where the bounty of the sea meets the beauty of the land

Our adventurous friend and the countess of Cascais

This time, I used the cataplana mostly without its lid on, my friend in Cascais, who sent the cataplana to me earlier this year, having told me that it can indeed be used in this way.

One key difference other than the relative sizes of a wok and a cataplana: the latter has metal handles, so you have to use oven gloves/mitts otherwise you’re going to have very hot, painful hands and will have to dash to the freezer to grab hold of some ice. A wok may have a wooden handle or one made of carbon steel or cast iron. When used on a stove top, a wok handle generally doesn’t take on enough heat to burn your hands.

But here’s the upside of cooking in a cataplana in this way. To finish off your dish, if, say, the prawns need to be cooked through after being fried quickly on both sides, you just clamp the lid on tightly and leave it for a few minutes.

I did this once I had tossed the cooked noodles through the prawns and their sauce, and it was a delight to turn out this perfectly cooked dish on to warmed plates and tuck straight in.

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So what I’ve really done with this dish is meld the way one uses a wok with Portuguese ways, and there’s some crossover in the ingredients, too. I used a wet paste not unlike the famous Lisbon paste that is the core of many dishes. The hero of Lisbon paste is plenty of roasted red bell peppers with loads of garlic and chilli, but the paste I concocted for this has only half a red pepper in it.

There’s garlic and ginger, lime juice and chilli oil, leavened with seasoned rice vinegar and a drop of sesame oil to bring in a touch of the East. There are also shiitake mushrooms in it, and I finished it with rice vermicelli.

Tony’s cataplana prawns with an Asian kick

The wet paste, left, and the prawns cooking, right. (Photos: Tony Jackman)

(Serves 2)

Ingredients

800g headless raw peeled and cleaned prawns

150g shiitake mushrooms, sliced

100g rice vermicelli, soaked in boiling water and drained

Coconut oil

For the wet paste:

½ a red pepper, diced

4 red chillies, diced

3cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and very finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, chopped

Juice of 1 lime

1 Tbsp Banhoek chilli oil

2 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar

A drop of sesame oil

Chopped coriander to serve

Method

Put the paste ingredients in a bowl and blend to a wet paste with a stick blender.

Defrost the prawn tails in cold water and drain. Leave to dry in a cool place. Pat dry.

Slice the shiitake mushrooms.

Soak the vermicelli for 10 minutes and drain.

Melt coconut oil in the base of a cataplana on a moderately low heat and add the sliced mushrooms. Stir fry quickly. Remove to a side dish.

Add more coconut oil. Fry the prawns quickly on both sides, in batches, just enough to colour them. Remove to a side dish and repeat.

Add the paste, shiitake mushrooms and the prawns that you had removed back to the cataplana.

Add the drained rice vermicelli and toss on a moderate heat for a minute. Clamp the lid on and cook for 3 minutes.

Serve garnished with chopped coriander. DM

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Writer 2023, jointly with TGIFood columnist Anna Trapido. Order his book, foodSTUFF, here.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

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Tony’s cataplana prawns with an Asian kick