Bunny Chow

Name: Bunny Chow
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 1 h 45 min
Total time: 2 h 10 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: South Africa
Ingredients: 1 kg mutton or lamb on the bone, cut into 4 cm pieces; 4 tbsp sunflower oil; 2 whole onions, finely chopped; 1 whole cinnamon stick; 4 whole cardamom pods, bruised; 4 whole cloves; 2 whole star anise; 1 tsp fennel seeds; 3 sprigs fresh curry leaves; 2 tbsp ginger and garlic paste; 4 tbsp Durban masala, or 3 tbsp mild chilli powder with 1 tbsp ground coriander; 1 tsp ground turmeric; 1 tsp ground cumin; 3 whole tomatoes, grated; 600 g potatoes, peeled and halved; 500 ml water; 2 tsp salt, or to taste; 2 whole unsliced white bread loaves; 4 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped; 200 g carrot and chilli sambal (grated carrot with vinegar and chilli)

Durban curry served in a hollowed half loaf, the crumb sitting on top as a lid

Origin: Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

From the journey of Curry Leaf.

A bunny chow is a quarter or half loaf of white bread with the middle pulled out and curry poured into the cavity, the removed crumb set on top as a lid and used to mop. There is no cutlery and there is no plate. The name has nothing to do with rabbits. The most credited account traces it to the bania, the Gujarati merchant caste whose Durban shops sold it, with chow simply meaning food. The container was the point: under apartheid-era restrictions Indian shopkeepers could not serve black customers indoors, so food had to be handed out through a hatch in something disposable, and a loaf of bread served as both vessel and cutlery. It is a dish shaped by a law. Durban's Indian population is the largest of any city outside the subcontinent, descended from indentured workers brought to the Colony of Natal from 1860 to cut sugar cane, mainly Tamil and Telugu speakers from the south, and from a later free merchant migration from Gujarat. What they built is recognisably Indian and unmistakably not Indian: Durban curry is hotter than almost anything in India, built on a masala heavy with chilli and turmeric, and the curry leaf runs right through it. The filling is traditionally mutton on the bone, though bean bunnies are the older and cheaper version and remain common. What matters is that the gravy is thick enough not to dissolve the bread before it is eaten, which is the practical test every Durban cook applies.

Ingredients

Meat

1 kg mutton or lamb on the bone, cut into 4 cm pieces

Base

4 tbsp sunflower oil
2 whole onions, finely chopped
1 whole cinnamon stick
4 whole cardamom pods, bruised
4 whole cloves
2 whole star anise
1 tsp fennel seeds
3 sprigs fresh curry leaves
2 tbsp ginger and garlic paste

Spices

4 tbsp Durban masala, or 3 tbsp mild chilli powder with 1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
3 whole tomatoes, grated

Vegetables

600 g potatoes, peeled and halved

Liquid

500 ml water

Seasoning

2 tsp salt, or to taste

To Serve

2 whole unsliced white bread loaves
4 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
200 g carrot and chilli sambal (grated carrot with vinegar and chilli)

Method

Heat the oil in a heavy pot and add the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise, and fennel. Let them sizzle for thirty seconds.
Add the curry leaves, then the onions, and cook over a medium heat for ten minutes until deep golden.
Stir in the ginger-garlic paste and cook for two minutes, then the masala, turmeric, and cumin with a splash of water.
Add the mutton and turn it in the masala over a high heat for five minutes until sealed on all sides.
Add the grated tomatoes and the salt, cover, and cook on a low heat for 20 minutes, letting the meat release its liquid.
Pour in the water, cover, and simmer gently for an hour to an hour and a quarter until the mutton is tender.
Add the potatoes and cook uncovered for a further 25 to 30 minutes, until they are soft and the gravy has thickened considerably.
Cut the loaves in half across, and pull the soft crumb out of each half, keeping it in one piece.
Ladle the curry into the hollowed loaves, set the crumb on top, and scatter with coriander. Serve with carrot sambal.

Notes

Durban masala is sold by South African grocers and online, and is essentially a hot, chilli-forward, turmeric-heavy curry powder. Its heat is the point; a mild substitute makes a pleasant dish that no Durbanite would recognise. Mutton on the bone gives far more flavour than boneless lamb. The bone marrow enriches the gravy. The bean bunny, made with sugar beans in the same masala, is the older and cheaper version and is still widely eaten. The gravy must be thick. This is the one place where a curry can be too loose and it matters practically rather than aesthetically. Serve with grated carrot sambal and nothing else. Bunny chow is street food and comes wrapped in paper.

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control