From The Shooting Gazette, February 2001
Return to Bombay

Written by: Amy Willcock
Illustration by: Robert E. Fuller

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This column is sometimes a family and friends affair. 

Everyone loves to give me ideas and suggestions to write about, and while some of them are very helpful, others are not fit for Granny’s eyes so are quickly binned. Recently, my husband - directly out of the pages of Victoria Mather and Sue McCartney’s Snape’s Social Stereotypes - read an article about Bombay Duck and rightly said I must comment on its return to our shelves. 

It seems that a bureaucrat in the EU banned all poultry from the East four years ago and in his wisdom included Bombay Duck! Can you believe it? Just think, we will be trusting these people with our nationality! 

Back to the duck - it is actually a cured fish used in curries. You may recall from inebriated student days passing an Indian take-away at midnight and seeing rows of Bombay Duck hanging in the window. The smell is absolutely ghastly as one might imagine, but men seem to love them - typical. 

I think the best way to deal with them is shredded and fried, then serve with a curry and enjoy. As for the origins of the name, answers on a postcard please! 

As I am in a spicy mood and hare is in peak season, I thought curried hare would go down a treat. Hare is a dark meat and is best treated like rabbit when preparing it. Do make sure to save the blood if you want to use it for another recipe (mixing a teaspoon of vinegar with the blood will avoid clotting). 

This is a perfect dish for a shoot lunch as it can be made in advance and frozen. Everyone likes a curry now and then and if you add chutneys, poppadoms and other aromatic accompaniments, lunch or dinner will turn into a feast fit for a Maharaja.