Bunny Chow (Durban Mutton Curry in a Quarter Loaf)

Bunny chow is Durban street food: a quarter of a white loaf hollowed out and filled with curry. It came out of the Indian South African community in Durban, and nobody agrees on who sold the first one. The lump of bread you pull out goes back on top as a lid, called the virgin, and the whole thing is eaten with your hands.

What you need

• 60ml sunflower oil
• 2 large onions, finely sliced
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 4 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
• 3 whole cloves
• 1 star anise
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 sprig fresh curry leaves (about 10 leaves)
• 2 tbsp ginger and garlic paste
• 3 tbsp Gorima's Kashmiri Extra Special Masala
• 1 tsp Gorima's Mother In Law Masala (optional, if you want it hot)
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1kg mutton or lamb on the bone, cut into 4cm pieces
• 2 ripe tomatoes, coarsely grated (or 200g tinned chopped tomato)
• 2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
• 500ml boiling water
• 2 tbsp Mrs Ball's Original Recipe Chutney
• 500g potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 2 carrots, coarsely grated
• 1 green chilli, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp white sugar
• 1 large unsliced white square loaf, a day old if you can manage it
• A handful of fresh coriander, chopped
• Extra Mrs Ball's Original Recipe Chutney, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onions and fry for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring often, until they collapse and turn a deep gold brown.
2. Add the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise, fennel seeds and curry leaves. One minute is enough, just until you can smell them.
3. Stir the ginger and garlic paste through and cook for another minute, until the raw edge comes off it.
4. Drop the heat to low before the masala goes in. Add the Kashmiri masala, the Mother In Law masala if you are using it, the turmeric and a splash of water, then cook for a minute so nothing catches.
5. Back up to medium heat. Tip in the mutton and stir until every piece is coated, then fry for 5 minutes.
6. Grated tomato and salt go in next. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the tomato breaks down and oil beads at the edge of the pot.
7. Pour in the boiling water and stir in the chutney. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook on low for 1 hour 30 minutes. Stir every 20 minutes.
8. Add the potatoes and cook covered for another 30 to 35 minutes, until the meat pulls off the bone and a knife slides straight through the potato. Top up with hot water if the pot dries out.
9. The carrot salad can be done while the curry cooks. Mix the carrot, chilli, vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt in a bowl, cover it, and leave it in the fridge until you serve.
10. Taste for salt and look at the gravy. It wants to coat the meat and sit on a spoon rather than run off it, so simmer uncovered for a few minutes if it looks thin.
11. Cut the loaf across into four equal blocks.
12. Stand a block upright and cut down into the top, about 2cm inside the crust. Work the knife around and lift the middle out in one piece. Leave 2cm of bread on the floor so the gravy stays in. Keep the piece you took out, and do the same with the other three.
13. Stir the coriander through the curry. Spoon the meat and potato into each hollow, then ladle over enough gravy to soak into the walls.
14. Sit the pulled out bread back on top of each one. Serve straight away with the carrot salad and extra chutney, and eat with your hands.

Worth knowing

• Give the onions the full 15 minutes. They are ready when the colour is an even deep gold right through and the slices smear against the side of the pot. If only the edges have darkened, they need longer. A pinch of salt early on helps them break down.
• If the curry comes out hotter than you wanted, stir an extra tablespoon of Mrs Ball's chutney or a couple of tablespoons of plain yoghurt in at the end, and put more carrot salad on the table. Water thins the gravy without doing much about the chilli.
• For a bean bunny, leave the mutton out and use 400g dried sugar beans soaked overnight. Simmer them in the same masala base with the water for about 1 hour 15 minutes, until soft and starting to break down. Either version suits a pressure cooker: 25 minutes at pressure for the mutton, 15 for soaked beans.
• Use a plain soft white square loaf, unsliced, and a day old if you can plan that far ahead. Fresh bread tears while you hollow it and goes to mush under the gravy. Sourdough and seeded loaves are too firm, and the flavour fights the curry.
• Serve it on a board or a plate rather than a bowl, with the carrot salad and more Mrs Ball's on the side. There is no cutlery. You tear off bits of crust and dip them, working down until the walls give in. Keep serviettes handy.