Bunny chow

Ingredients

• Lamb — on the bone, in pieces900 g
• White loaf — loaves2
• Onions3
• Tomatoes4
• Ginger garlic paste3 tbsp
• Durban curry powder4 tbsp
• Curry leaves15
• Cinnamon stick1
• Cardamom pods4
• Potatoes400 g
• Vegetable oil80 ml
• Carrot salad — to serve200 g
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Fry the onion in oil until deep gold and add the cinnamon, cardamom and curry leaves.

   15 min

2. 2

   Stir in the ginger garlic paste and the curry powder and cook them two minutes.

   4 min

3. 3

   Add the lamb and brown it, turning it through the spices.

   12 min

4. 4

   Add the chopped tomatoes, season and stew covered for an hour on a low heat.

   65 min

5. 5

   Add the potato in large pieces and stew twenty-five minutes more.

   27 min

6. 6

   Uncover and reduce the sauce until a spoon leaves a trail in it.

   12 min

7. 7

   Halve the loaves, pull out the crumb, fill them with the curry and set the crumb on top.

   10 min

About the dish

The loaf is not cut with a knife once it is filled — it is eaten by hand, tearing pieces from the edges and dipping them. The removed crumb sits on top and is used to wipe the base.

The curry has to be very thick. A loose one soaks the bread through within five minutes and the loaf collapses in the hand before it is eaten.

The dish appeared in Durban in the 1940s: under apartheid Indian workers could not enter restaurants and were served through a window — in bread, because crockery could not leave the premises.

Worth knowing

• — Use yesterday's dense loaf. A soft fresh one soaks through instantly and the whole point of the serving is lost.
• — Do not hollow the loaf all the way, leaving a centimetre wall. A thin wall tears under the weight of the curry.
• — Durban curry powder is hotter than most and carries a great deal of red chilli. Madras blend with added cayenne stands in for it.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

880 kcal

Protein

48 g

Fat

40 g

Carbs

82 g

More from South Africa

• Bobotie — A bake of spiced mince with dried fruit under an egg and milk custard. South Africa's national dish.
• Chakalaka — A spicy vegetable relish of carrot, pepper and beans with curry. For a braai, for pap, or on its own.
• Melktert — A milk tart with cinnamon: a barely-egged custard filling in a shortcrust base.