Plancha

A thick flat iron: seafood, a steak, or a vegetable that wants a hard sear without falling through a grate.

Also called plancha grill, iron griddle · From Spain — and the Argentine kitchen that borrowed the word

A thick steel plancha with seared prawns, oil, and a wedge of lemon.

The journey

Plancha is a plate of iron, not a grill with gaps. Spanish cooks seared prawns and fish on it so the juices stayed. Argentine pages use the word when the parrilla is too fierce and a flat heat is kinder. The books name it only a few times, which is why it belongs here: it is specific, not a synonym for skillet.

A cast-iron skillet is the honest cousin. A ridged grill pan is a different marks.

A 1780 map of Spain and Portugal — the coast whose prawns still want a flat iron plate. — Rigobert Bonne, map of Spain and Portugal (1780) · Public domain. Source

In the kitchen

Get it smoking hot, oil the food not the plate, and do not crowd it. Prawns are done when they curl and blush. A steak wants the same patience as a parrilla, minus the smoke.

The Spanish and Argentine volumes reach for this plate when the recipe says sear and means it.

Used in these ComidaTime kitchens

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