Cataplana de marisco a la Mia

Portugal is calling regarding a fish and prawn combo and I'm listening. In fact, I'm getting the kitchen ready, because the sound of this dish is incredibly tempting.

A friend of mine is Portuguese and she gave me this recipe for a cataplana de marisco. I had no idea what cataplana was, but whatever it was, I didn't have it. I needed to know what to substitute it with. It turned out to be a cooking vessel, the same way a paella is the name of the pan the meal is cooked in. No problem, easily sorted. It needed to be something that I could fry in and that had a lid. I used a large saucepan and that worked fine.

The recipe I was given featured prawns and clams, but as I didn't have any clams and wanted a substantial meal, I swapped them for haddock fillets. Not that I know what the original dish would taste like, but I can recommend this version. My guess is that proper chorizo in chunks was meant to be used, but I happened to have spicy slices and they worked well. Because they were so thin, I reduced the cooking time a little.

As you can see from the first photo, there was is no salt or pepper in this dish and to tell you the truth, I thought that was odd. It wasn't needed though and that's probably because of the chorizo. Paprika was the main flavour and it mingled really well with the rest of the ingredients. In regards to the parsley, I was meant to add it at serving time, but I got too excited and totally forgot. I wondered what the jar was doing on the counter top when I returned to the kitchen after having dinner. Oh well...

It was suggested that the dish was served with bread to did into the tomato sauce, but I had bread for lunch, so I decided to serve with broccoli. That was really nice. The following day I had a light lunch and served the leftovers with rice instead. Also really nice.

For my version of cataplana de marisco, I used:

400 g haddock fillets, cut into finger-sized pieces

400 g prawns

1 pack sliced spicy chorizo, chopped into smaller pieces

2 onions, sliced

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tsp paprika (I may have used 2...)

no parsley

1/2 cup rose wine

2 small bay leaves

1. Get all the ingredients out.

2. Slice the onions and chop the garlic.

3. Soften the onions in a little oil and add the garlic.

The recipe said to use 1 cup of olive oil and I don't know if that was a typo, but it sounded far too much. I only used 1 tbsp, if even that. Just enough to fry off the onion. I can't imagine what it would taste like with the suggested amount of oil. I think it would spoil the meal.

4. Add the chopped tomatoes and bay leaves. Stir and leave to simmer on medium heat with the lid on for 30 minutes. Stir every so often.

5. Chop the chorizo.

6. Add the chorizo to the tomato mixture and stir. Leave to simmer for 15 minutes with the lid on.

7. Season with paprika and stir.

You can see that I used more than 1 tsp. Perhaps that's why it tasted so much of paprika, but I liked it.

8. Once the seasoning has been added, place the fish on top of the tomato mixture and put the lid back on for another 15 minutes.

I was once told to cook fish this way, if the sauce was thick enough to support it. Place the fish on top and you can see when it turns white. That means it's ready and you can stir it into the sauce. Clever!

9. When the fish is almost done, add the wine and stir in the fish.

10. Add the prawns and stir. Cook with the lid on for 15 minutes.

11. If you haven't already sorted out your trimmings, this is the time to do it.

12. Take the lid off and behold the treat that is this Portuguese dish in all its glory.

13. Serve with your choice of trimmings.

My, oh my, this was an enjoyable dinner. I will definitely make it again. The addition of fish was lovely and made it a filling meal. I used haddock, but I'm sure almost any fish would work just as well.