I have made these yummy things before a couple of times and just now I am going to post how I made these yummy bunny chows. You seen me post about Nigerian and Ethiopian dishes as well as some from North Africa like Egypt and Morocco. Bunny chows are clearly South African.
I have some friends from South africa that are on Facebook and I got the thumbs up from them telling me it looks good. Mr. Riaz just devoured these and he says they are the bomb and it really is his favorite. It came to Africa via The many Indians that used to work for the british. They brought their masalas (spices) with them that is a great seasoning for the curry. The bread is made and It is either 1/4 or 1/2 of an unsliced loaf.
I made some homemade whole wheat bread for this. First I preheated oven at 375F or 190C. In a bowl I combined 1 1/2 cups each of all purpose unbleached flour and whole wheat flour, 1 handful of nido. 1 tiny pinch of baking soda, 2 pinches of baking powder, 3 pinches of yeast, 1 pinch each of turbinado sugar and pink salt, 1 cup of water a little at a time for making the dough. Add to the flour mixture a little at a time for dough not batter. You want the dough to be nice smooth and elsastic not somg gloppy mess. Once the dough is formed add 3 tbs of olive oil to the dough and knead for 3 minutes.
This makes the dough easy to handle and it won’t stick to your fingers or the sides of the bowl. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. I prepped the cookie sheet or big cast iron skillet by using a sheet of parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray. This dough was enough for 4 tiny loaves of bread and that is all we needed. I used to cook enough to feed a small army and now I said wait there are the two of us and hardly anyone comes to pay us a visit. Sometimes every now and then one of my friends my show up. I shaped the bread in to long shapes and placed it in the parchment paper lined cast iron skillet of mine. I covered it and let it sit for 10 minutes. I baked it for 10 minutes then took it out and flipped it on the other side and baked for 5 or until the bread is done.
I took them out of the oven when finished and placed it in the cloth that I have that keeps the bread warm. Set this aside and make the curry.
There are choices of which type of curry that can be used It is always with potatoes and can be both veg or non veg. The spices are 1 each broken piece of star anise and small piece of cinnamon stick or 1 pinch of cinnamon powder if you are a small broken piece of cinnamon stick then it isn’t necessary to add the cinnamon powder and vice versa. Also 1 small green cardamom and 1 pinch each of cumin seeds and coriander seeds gets ground in to a coarse powder in a mortar and pestle. The spice powders are 1 pinch each of turmeric, red chili powder, paprika, curry powder and garam masala.
Also other seasonings that is 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma, 1 bullion cube or 2 pinchs of vegtea seasoning, 3 pinches of cilantro.
Veg choices are 1/2 bag of mixed vegetables, peas, spinach, green beans, carrots and brocoli. You can even add your choice of cup of beans of choice as a protein sourse or use 1 /2 bag of Morningstar Farm braind veggie crumbles. If using beans cook them in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes with 5 cups of water. Let pressure subside and then check to see if they are soft if not then watch the presure button pop up again and let cook for another 15 minutes then shut the heat off unseasoned. Keep some of the reserve juice if using beans. Also for vegetarians and vegans can use veggie bullion by maggi or use vegtea seasoning. Don’t worry the maggi or knorr aroma is vegan friendly.
For us omnivoures and carnavoures it really doesn’t matter as long as you use any type of bullion you wish just as long as it is from halal sources. The yield of potatoes is between 1 to 5. You will need 5 potatoes to mash if you are going to use it for keema. Don’t worry about the masala because this same masala is for making all of these bunny chow variations. I will post each varient on Instagram inshallah and tell them look at this post.
The protein of choices very and can be fish fresh frozen or canned. Shrimp that has been peeled and deveined, 1 heart from a cow, lamb or goat, 1 kilo or 1 pound of goat, lamb, chicken breast, frozen or fresh fish of choice like perch, sardines, tuna, herring, salmon, mackeral, tilapia, swai, flounder, catfish, etc., chicken gizzards, beef, veal, kidneys and liver. What I mean by liver I meant from chicken lamb, beef or veal.
If using kidneys and liver clean them by taking the membraines off and cutting the kidneys by removing the fatty cortex which is that fatty part in the inner kidney. Wash them in cold salt water and keep rinsing 6 or 7 times making sure the blood and all of that smell is gone. Also add more cold water to a bowl and add the kidney or liver pieces and 1 oz of white vinegar. This takes more of the smell and blood away and rinse 5 more times and drain them in between to make sure the dirty bloody water is removed.
Fry the kidneys and or liver unseasoned and set them aside when they are done. Cut beef, lamb, goat or veal in to small pieces and cook these until done on low heat also unseasoned and set aside. No this is not an assorted meat dish. It is not at all what you think. These are the choices. There is a reason why I precooked this meat because most red meats take a longer time to cook and it is a very tough meat sometimes. Only use one of these at a time to make the curry.
For 1 kilo or 1 lb of mince make the curry first then add the mince and cook until it is done which would take 15 minutes. The type of mince that is used can be chicken, turkey, lamb, goat, beef, veal or Morningstar farm veggies crumbles. Boil 5 potatoes in their jackets for 35 minutes or until tender. Drain let cool peel and mash then set aside. Here is the recipe for the potatoes if you use mince. At any other time for other curries you use 1 potato.
The fish goes like this, If using fresh fish clean remove scales and the guts if it isn’t cleaned yet or ask your fish monger to clean it for you. If using frozen or even canned same rules apply and it can be in tomato sauce or brine for the canned fish. With fresh or frozen fish you can cut the fish in small pieces.
Ok we are on to the home streach so hold your horses. I added 1/4 cup of olive oil to a pot on high heat. 1 onion or shallot cut in to half moon slices and fried until it was brown, I added contents of my mortor and pestle with the rest of the other seasonings that talked about near the beginning of the post like garam masala, paprika, curry powder, red chili powder, curry leaves, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 small piece of ginger washed and peeled which I chopped. I also added bullion cube. turmeric, maggi or knorr aroma, 1 green chili deseeded and chopped. I added 1 tomato and turned the heat down to low and cooked the tomato down to a mush.
In this curry base I put 1 heart that was my protein of choice last night with 1 potato that I cut in to tiny pieces. I didn’t peel it but that is what I prefered. If you want you can peel the potato before you cut it up in tiny pieces the add to the curry. I added the cilantro. I cooked this for 15 minutes and checked to see if I needed to add water or not. However It made a nice thick curry on its own. I checked to see if it was tender and It was but if the curry was not thick at all I would take 1 tsp of cornstarch that I would add to 1 cup of water to make a slurry. I would add it to the curry and cook and stir frequently until it got thick.
Put Your choice of veg or non veg to suit your taste buds and with this recipe you can’t go wrong.
Now for putting together the bunny chow, Cut the bread in half and hollow it out with your thumb gently. With this you can either add mashed potatoes at the bottom then add the mince on top or add the curry that has either veg or non veg options in to the bread and boom you have it.
Here are these yummy veriants of bunny chow with all of its goodness in a nutshell. If you want to hear something funny, yesterday was my 54th birthday.
I normally do not like to cook on my birthday but I am old now and it doesn’t matter anymore. I do not like to eat out of resturants at all so I gave in and cooked dinner even on my birthday. This was not the first time I made this dish. I said however next time I make this I am putting this on my blog. So now it is on blog for all to see on how to make my bunny chow and a lovely birthday dinner it was for me to enjoy too along with Mr. Riaz which was all raves.
Enjoy!!!!!!
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