Pau Buera discovered kotlina on one of his business trips to Slovakiawhere his company, based in Barcelona, has a factory where they make car parts.
“It is typical of that area, to cook goulash,” he explains. “Mostly they use it in winter, when it snows. The funny thing is that it’s snowing and you’re cooking next to the fire with a shot of brandy. They have parties with friends cooking outside. I’ve done it and it’s cool.”
Buera had never thought that a mill like this, known only in the former Czechoslovakia, Hungary and part of Poland, would be useful in Spain, but he saw that the spanish expats people from the area used kotlina to cook paella.
“I brought one here for my brother-in-law as a gift and an uncle of ours told us ‘I want one,'” he says. “And the light bulb went on. As the pandemic caught, we were locked up, everything matched. I had time to start something and an idea.”
Thus was born Kotlik, the company with which Buera imports this particular wood stove to Spain. “I bring them from Slovakia, from a guy who has a workshop and welds them by hand,” she explains. “I also have other smaller, more industrial ones, which are from Hungary and now they are made in China. But we have both product ranges”.
Ideal for all kinds of stews
Due to its shape, this wood stove can be used, in addition to the cauldron (which is its traditional application), with a paella or a wok. Basically, any round cookware. With the lid on, it can also be used as an outdoor wood stove, as well as to prepare smoked foods. Its chimney also prevents the place where we cook from being filled with smoke.
“The fun is that you can cook different things”Buera explains. “Instead of having barbecue or paella, you can make a wok or make sticky rice. The other day my mother made a crayfish stew… It gives you a lot of play”.
On the other hand, Buera points out, the fact that the firewood is enclosed while burning provides a superior heat utilization to which they can present other cooking methods, which leave the flame or ember unprotected on the sides.
Actually, the least useful thing for kotlina is to use it as a barbecue. In Slovakia it is not used as such, and although Buera has developed a circle grill to use it on the device, recognizes that it is a more forced application. “The diameter is 40 cm, if a lot of people come you fall short”, he points out. “But people are afraid to buy something that doesn’t have a grill, so I make it here in Spain to measure”.
Goulash Soup Serving Kettle and Metal Easel 0.75L Authentic Metal Cauldron and Tripod
Buera sells two artisan models of kotlina, made of iron and welded by hand: there are 38 and 42 cm in diameter and they cost 299.95 and 319.95 euros, respectively. In addition, it sells the smaller and lighter stainless steel sheet kotlina, which costs 148.95 euros. In his store, he also sells the typical cauldrons for cooking goulash (ideal for making any other type of stew).
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