Cataplana & Algarve Beaches
See food Cataplana.
Whats your traditional dish? A typical question any curious foodie would ask if one is in a foreign land. The famous one in Algarve region of Portugal is ‘Cataplana’. Â Its interesting to observe how the food is prepared and served. It also reflects the life style of Portugese fishermen. Cataplana is prepared by steaming mixed seafood, vegetables and other aromatic ingredients together in a special pot (also called Cataplana). Although simple, the dish tastes excellent. Â The process of steaming in a closed vessel retains all the juices from seafood & vegetables within the pot and it adds a natural taste to the dish. The fish doesn’t have to be perfectly cut. Just use whatever fish you may get it from sea. I liked the wholesome pot meal which is a balanced meal in itself. Â The sauce goes well with Portuguese bread.
Cataplana is a dish cooked with seafood(fish, shell fishes..) and some sausages along with onion, tomatoes,garlic, olive oil and white wine. There are slight variations on what goes as a main ingredient to this dish. Fish Cataplana or Shell fish cataplana or Meat Cataplana. I observed that the meat one is an adapted one over some period.
We tried it in a Restaurant called ‘Millennium’ in Lagos during our last year trip.. Soon the restaurant became our favourite and we visited again this time as well. It was surprising to find out the ingredients from restaurant staff. It is closer to one of the traditional dish, Meen Kuzhambhu, from south indian fishermen community. In India, the sauce is prepared almost in the similar way minus the wine, plus tamarind,and spice powders in a clay pot. In Algarve, Corriander leaves are used and in the northern Portugal, Parsley is used for garnishing.
We enjoyed the dish along with Ciabatta bread, which was very close to the bread served in Restaurants in Algarve.
Ingredients:
- Mixed fish – 500 gms
- Mussels – 100gms
- Prawns – 100 gms
- Onion – 2 big
- Tomato – 4
- Olive oil – 2 Tbs
- piri piri sauce -1 Tbs
- Garlic -5 pods sliced
- Salt for taste as required
- Coriander for garnishing
- White wine – 1/2 glass
- Boiled potatoes – 100 gms (cubed or sliced)
Victoria See Barsh fish, Salmon fish, Pangasius fish, Prawns and Mussels.
Method:
1. Place the Cataplana pot on heat, add oil and once it is hot add garlic and saute for half a minute.
2. Add onion and saute until it is transparent. Add 2 chopped tomatoes and saute for a minute.
3. Grind the 2 tomatoes in to puree and add it to the pot.
4. Now arrange the seafood in the order they cook. The one takes longer time should go at the bottom and which takes short time like prawns or Muschels should go on the top layer.
5. Add the fish pieces in a layer and sprinkle some salt. Then add potatoes, Muschel and prawns on top layer and sprinkle some salt for this.
6. Add piri piri and add white wine. Close the lid and cook it covered for 10 minutes on a gas stove. Garnish with corrainder and switch off the stove.
My ceramic stove took nearly 25 minutes to finish cooking whole dish.(you also get the special cataplana pot for the induction stoves.). It would perfectly fit for a gas stove.
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Algarve Beaches
The south and south west region of Algarve is surrounded by beautiful beaches with rocky cliffs. Literally every 0.5km to 1 km you may find a beach, which has its own beauty. Meia Praia in Lagos is one of the longest beach in Algarve covering 4kms. Â It is famous for water sports and wind surfing. The beach itself reminded me of ‘Marina’ beach in Chennai, India.
Meia Praia
Praia do Camilo Beach. This is one of our favorite beach with beautiful rocks and sea green water.
Praia do Camilo Beach.
Benagil Beach. A small beach but famous for Europe’s largest water caves (Will cover in next posts)
Faro Beach.
People enjoying last weeks of swimming period in Faro. (Swimming not allowed after September due to cold weather)
It was a beautiful experience to see Faro backwaters low tide and high tide changes. The boat happily floating during high tide and rests on sand during low tide as below.This change happens approx. every six hours.
Low tide Faro back waters.
Panoramic view of Porches beach.
Porches church and beautiful view of sea. Dont miss the beautiful sunset from here and bright fullmoon is an added bonus.
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