Please don't shoot the messenger but in the introduction to a small Balti cookbook Pat Chapman wrote for Sainsburys in 1994, he states that
"Cooking curry amongst people of all ages is on the increase. And they are demanding more and more sophistication from their curry restaurants and their food suppliers. Every now and then a new idea appears on the culinary scene and spreads like wildfire. This happened in the 1970s with Tandoori cooking, which, though in itself an ancient technique, had not been a feature of curry house menus before. A couple of decades having passed, it was time for a new development to emerge on the curry scene; Balti Is that new development.
Balti is a type of curry. Any ingredient or combination of ingredients can be used. The distinctive feature about balti is the way it is cooked, and the pan it is cooked and served in, A two handled wok like steel dish, the Balti pan is also known in India as a karahi. Balti is aromatic, fresh, spicy and very tasty (and only hot if you make it so). Cooking balti is (or should be) quick and easy. You'll need to spend a couple of hours making a few basic preparations every now and again, but once you've done this you'll be able to produce stir-fry Balti curries as easily as Chinese dishes.
The first Balti house opened in the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham as early as 1976. The original establishment still supplies cheap and cheerful transport-cafe-style balti food. Portions are huge and cutlery is only dispensed on demand (You are welcome to use a chapati or naan bread to scoop up the balti curry). The next 10 years saw several copycat balti houses opening up: today, Birmingham has well over 100 houses and Balti restaurants are opening all over the country.
Balti is fun and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Restaurants have names like Balti Bizarre and I am the King of Balti; there are at least three called Balti Towers!
I've had many a chat with many Balti house owners, each of whom is unshiftable about the origins of Balti. One is convinced it was Afghanistan, another, Iran, whilst others are adamant that it was India, or the Punjab, or Karachi or Kashmir. Best opinion of all was from a Bangladeshi who owns a balti house in Cardiff. In a fruity Brummie accent he categorically told me it was Birmingham which invented Balti. He didn't quite go as far as to claim it for himself, but he assured me that anything else I'd heard to the contrary was quite untrue.
In fact, he is right and he's wrong. There is no doubt whatsoever that Birmingham brought Balti to the attention of the British nation. However, Balti's cooking origins go back rather further than Birmingham - to Pakistan. It is centuries old, from the most northern areas of Pakistan in a mountainous and little-known state called Baltistan. Here, on the border of Tibet and India, live a hardy people, who, over the centuries, have learned to live in an inhospitable climate. In their traditional two-handled pan, the Balti pan, Balti people, with Tibetan ancestry and with Kashmiri spicing have created a unique cooking style. This style is now created with great charm and panache, in Balti houses all over the country."
So is a Balti a combination of the style, cooking utensil, and particular local herbs and spices from a remote corner of the world?
Topic: Balti (read 89,070 times)
