Bunny Chow

Name: Bunny Chow
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Indian South African
Ingredients: 800 g Mutton or lamb on the bone, cut into pieces; 2 White bread, unsliced loaves; 3 Onions, chopped; 4 Tomatoes, grated; 3 tbsp Garlic and ginger paste; 4 tbsp Durban masala or hot curry powder; 2 sprigs Curry leaves; 1 Cinnamon stick; 2 Star anise; 3 Potatoes, quartered; 4 tbsp Oil; 600 ml Water; 2 tsp Salt; 25 g Fresh coriander, chopped; 200 g Carrot and chilli salad (sambals) to serve

A quarter loaf of white bread hollowed out and filled with mutton curry, the torn-out crumb set on top as a lid — Durban Indian street food, eaten with the hands and no cutlery at all.

Source

Recipe by Durban Indian kitchens · 🏺 Traditional · The largest Indian community outside India, descended from indentured labourers brought to Natal in the 1860s — and a curry tradition that went its own way for 160 years.

Indian South African · Durban — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article confirms it as an Indian South African fast food of curry served inside a hollowed-out loaf, and its Durban origin. Quantities and method are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

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⏱ 120 min🍽 4 servings🔥 780 kcal🇿🇦 South Africa🌶️🌶️🌶️

HalalDairy-freeNut-free

Steps

Fry the onion in the oil for 10 minutes, then add the curry leaves, cinnamon, star anise and garlic-ginger paste for 2 minutes.
Take the pan off the heat, stir in the masala, then return it and add the grated tomato. Cook 5 minutes until it darkens.
Add the mutton and salt, turn it in the masala and cook covered on low for 1 hour.
Add the water and potato and simmer 30 minutes more, until the meat falls off the bone and the sauce is thick.
💡 It has to be thick. A loose curry soaks straight through the bread and the whole thing collapses in your hands.
Cut each loaf in half — or in quarters for a smaller portion — and pull the soft crumb out of the cut face, leaving a wall all round.
Fill the hollow with curry, set the torn crumb on top as a lid, and serve with the carrot sambal alongside.

💡 Tips

The bread lid is not decoration. You tear pieces off it to scoop the curry, and by the end you have eaten the container.
Order sizes are a quarter, a half or a full loaf. A quarter is one person's lunch; a full is a challenge.
Bean bunny — made with sugar beans instead of mutton — is the original and is what many Durban shops still sell most of.