How to cook… Bunny Chow

Recipes

Serves 2 as a main dish

It’s simple, it’s rustic and it’s tasty… it’s a Bunny Chow! You’ll find someone selling them on every street corner in Durban, South Africa. Ideal for that steamy tropical climate, yet also great comfort food for cold winters. Cut off the bottom of a loaf, scoop out the white stuff leaving a crust shell. Fill with hot chicken curry (don’t forget the sauce now), settle down and use the bread you scooped out to mop up and eat your curry. No cutlery permitted. Durbanite and Bunny Chow lover Richard says bunnies are best eaten sitting cross-legged while staring at the Indian Ocean with a bottle of ice-cold Coke by your side.

What you need…
• 1 loaf of bread (it is best to use a loaf that has been left a day since buying it so the edges harden up and the curry won’t leak out)
• 0.5 recipe Durban Chicken Curry (or any other curry of your choice)


How to make it
1. Cut the loaf in half and scoop out the bread to create a small “bread pots”.
2. Fill each hollowed out half with the curry, put the bread you scooped out on top (use this to mop up the curry as you eat) and serve with chilli and carrot sambals. Squeeze some lemon or orange on the carrots and eat towards the end of the meal to degrease your fingers, clear your palate and freshen up your breath.

* Note: this is a Half Bunny (so-called because it is served in half a loaf of bread. For the really hungry simply cut the top off the loaf and you have a Full Bunny. If you want a Quarter Bunny cut the loaf lower (although in reality this should more like a third as a quarter of a loaf is too small and will leak).

* When ordering a Bunny Chow locals would never mention it by name. They would just say: “Quarter beans,” or “Half chicken”. Simples.

CHEF’S TIP
If you cant wait a day for your bread to harden up then put it in the oven for a few minutes. This will crisp up the edges and stop the curry leaking out.
To make a Bunny Chow cut a loaf in half and remove the bread as shown above. Then fill with the curry of your choice.

If you like this you should try our
Sag PaneerChilli PaneerButter ChickenButter PaneerPrawn KormaMedium Chicken CurryChicken MadrasChicken VindalooChicken BhoonaChicken Dopiaza

How do you transport a Bunny Chow? … by hareplane.

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