Topic: Three baltis

[mickdabass]

Made this last night and must admit it was one tasty balti. I made my own ghee- what a revelation that was! The shop bought stuff taints the food with an unpleasant odour, but the home made stuff gives the curry a richer, creamier flavour. Shall definitely make some more for my next curries. The base was the rcr balti one Ive been using for a while now, and the secret ingredient added was 1/2 tsp pomegranate seeds. I used 2 tsp of the Balti Spice mix, and the only other inclusion was 1 coarsely chopped tomato. I will omit the tomato next time round

   

[JerryM]

what expertise - thanks all and particularly Les

g/g it is. i would go with the mustard color too.

i've got mix and chef balti garam made. the balti garam i feel is a tad better than my norm - quite a suprise.

the spice mix is quite rough c/w my iffu class stuff. color looks good.

need to get base made. the mix and garam are much better than previous attempt. very promising.

first time i've really used garlic powder and quite taken to it in the mix powder.

ps the mix only has 0.5 unit turmeric at moment (even though table says 10). intend to up the amount towards 10 units depending how the curries go. i also had no ginger powder.





LH IFFU RH LB_BBC rev 1




LH Balti RH my norm

[JerryM]

added was 1/2 tsp pomegranate seeds. 

Mickdabass,

curry looks very nice. the pomegranate (Anardana) caught my eye. i use it in kashmiri massala (parker21 and issiemc).

can you say where you used it - i guess you liked. if it was in the main dish then would be interested in the effect. i have same but in molasses which i've not tried out yet. it tastes very nice.

[mickdabass]

Hi Jerry

I added the pomegranate seeds just before the second ladle of base went in (i use 3 ladles in total). They gave the dish a nice sweet acidity contrasting with the creaminess of the full fat milk in the base and the ghee really gave the dish an enhanced depth of flavour...at least that's my opinion anyway. They also gave the dish a little bit of a bite. Ive abandoned the lemon juice now in favour of the pomegranate seeds

[Les]

what expertise - thanks all and particularly Les
g/g it is. i would go with the mustard color too.

Your welcome Jerry,
Best of luck, Go crack this mother ;D

Les

[Invisible Mike]

Made this last night and must admit it was one tasty balti. I made my own ghee- what a revelation that was! The shop bought stuff taints the food with an unpleasant odour, but the home made stuff gives the curry a richer, creamier flavour. Shall definitely make some more for my next curries. The base was the rcr balti one Ive been using for a while now, and the secret ingredient added was 1/2 tsp pomegranate seeds. I used 2 tsp of the Balti Spice mix, and the only other inclusion was 1 coarsely chopped tomato. I will omit the tomato next time round

 

Hi Mick. I havn't added much to this thread, I have been lurking in the background since it started just taking in what people have been writing. I think a proper balti is the epitome of all curries personally and would love to make one taste half as good as a decent TA and this one you've posted up looks awesome. Can I please ask, what is the RCR balti base that you used? I've not seen this mentioned on here before. This may be a stupid question but do baltis have specific bases all of their own that are different to standard BIR curries, ie madrases, bhunas etc?

Many Thanks

Mike

More stupid questions to follow... :

[Les]

More stupid questions to follow... :

No such thing Mike,
RCR is another curry site where you need to pay for recipes,

http://www.realcurryrecipes.co.uk/

[mickdabass]

Hi Mike.

Yes Baltis do have their own bases. Generally they use a fair few whole spices and a special GM too. I originally used the Kushi Base from this website and have had reasonable success with it. The recipe from the subscription website is a completely different animal. It contains a lot of full fat milk and frozen cauliflower!!
I didnt have any frozen cauli so I used fresh. The finished gravy had a different smell about it, and to be honest, I doubted the potential of it. As far as the way I cooked the curry, I didnt do anything different to how I would usually cook one ie G&G, Tom puree, Spices in (martinvics balti GM), ladle of gravy, oil separation, 1/2 tsp pomegranate seeds, ladle 2 of gravy, reduction & oil separation, 3rd ladle gravy, final reduction & serve
Not sure about copyright infringements etc so dont think I could post the recipe in the public domain.

Cheers

Mick

[goncalo]

RCR is another curry site where you need to pay for recipes,

Just to clarify, you don't have to pay for recipes. You pay for a subscription, which gives you access to a  number of commercial and non-commercial recipes sourced by a variety of members. I'm a subscriber, but I don't use mine all that often and quite possibly won't be renewing my subscription as such. I found a few interesting tips, but they lack in forum usability/organization -- they do seem to be a friendly bunch, always eager to help. It's worth having an account if you are obsessing by this type of food or trying to start your own business.

[Les]

Thanks' for putting me right goncalo,
Wasn't quite sure how it worked.

Les