Dubbi Nandu

Name: Dubbi Nandu
Yield: Serves 4 as a snack
Cuisine: Sri Lanka
Ingredients: 500 ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) vegetable oil, for frying; 200 g (7 oz/about 15) small pink Asian shallots*, peeled and left whole; 1 lime, cut into wedges; 800 g (1 lb 12 oz/about 4) green (raw) balmain or moreton bay bugs (or cooked); 3-4 thin green chillies*, halved lengthways; 1½ teaspoons salt; 1 red onion*, halved and thinly sliced; 3 teaspoons Bamini’s roasted curry powder (or store-bought roasted curry powder)

Preparation info

Serves
4
as a snack

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka

By Bree Hutchins

Published 2013

About

Bamini made this dish as a snack while we were preparing the odiyal kool. She marinated the flesh of the dubbi nandu (balmain bugs) in a blend of spices and then fried them, finishing with a squeeze of lime juice. Once I tasted them, I knew I would be making this at home.

Ingredients

800 g (1 lb 12 oz/about 4) green (raw) balmain or moreton bay bugs</

Asia
Sri Lanka
Jaffna
Snack
Spicy
Vegan
Gluten-free

Method

Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add the balmain bugs and boil for 5 minutes, or until just cooked. Drain and rinse under cold running water or plunge into iced water to stop the cooking process. If using cooked bugs, you can skip this step.

To remove the meat, take the tail in one hand and the head in the other, and twist hard so the tail and head separate.