Topic: Three baltis

[goncalo]

Regardless Gav, your curries look spot on to me! Well done mate.

[Gav Iscon]

Regardless Gav, your curries look spot on to me! Well done mate.

Cheers Goncalo, I'm off to get more supplies for tonights curries. My son enjoyed the Jerry/Rob one the best but I feel I can get them both better. Two new guinea pigs tonight with my daughter and boyfriend eating here.

On a slightly different subject but still related, the household guinea pig (as in furry animal) goes absolutely mental for coriander stalks. 

[mickdabass]

Nice looking curries there Gav. My mate bought me a chicken balti from his favourite restaurant in the balti triangle last week - the Al Frash. The taste was out of this world!! It was quite a dry curry - not heat whatsoever; just that lovely, subtle well balanced flavour. The sauce had quite an interesting texture. Not sure if it was from the gravy (which I suspect it was) or from a balti paste as Jerry mentions in an earlier post. I do feel that I have come pretty close to it in some of my earlier attempts (see Reply #180) although I now omit the pomegranate seeds

Best Regards

Mick

[Invisible Mike]

Having read the Kushi balti house mentioned at the start of the thread I thought it might be of some interest to post the results of last Sunday's dinner. I was bought the Authentic Balti Curry Book for my birthday the other week and what a corker it is. Despite living not too far from the balti triangle I still haven't actually been for a curry there so I can't say for certain if I have ever had a "proper" balti. That said the ones I have had elsewhere I have really enjoyed and have always had a preference for those over say madras and jalfrezi etc.

I made up the kushi spice, the pre cooked chicken, the gravy and followed the instructions for the most basic curry recipe in the book. Final dish recipes just don't come any simpler. What I achieved was exactly what I have been looking for since I began my takeaway curry quest. The aroma, the colour, the texture of the sauce, the taste, everything was the same as I have had from a TA. Rich, deeply savoury and extremely moreish, I just couldn't believe the results and not a jar of Patak's anywhere to be seen!

I made the base with Dutch onions which I believe give superb results and "singed" the Kushi spice very gently in the oil before adding the tomatoes etc which I have recently discovered makes a big difference in achieving the taste. You know when the spices are done because you can feel your sinuses burning! Contrary to the recipe I added a second ladle of base to the pan. Having had a crafty mid-cook taste I decided the spices were too strong and the sauce too dry for that stage of the cooking. I think that made an infinite improvement on the prescribed recipe. In fact so much so that I thought there must have been a publishing error and someone had left out "Ladle No.2" from the recipe before going to print. Served with H4ppy Chris's superb naans and the fried rice from another present from the inlaws More Takeaway Secrets by Kenny McGovern.

I am aware curry portions look a bit on the measly side but I reduced the sauce down bhuna style. (Plus my daughter was over so had to split three ways.) I really like a dryer curry when eating with naans as I find it is easier to scoop. No forks allowed here! Also please excuse the picture quality. iPads in artificial light take worse pictures than my crapberry! Anyway absolutely beautiful curry and 100% authentic (at least as far as my local TAs go!)

My first pictorial post so go easy on me! 

Mike

[jb]

Looking good,I've always liked the Kushi book.I know some haven't had much success but I've made some lovely curries from it.Never worked out though what makes it a specific 'balti' recipe book,they just look like standard BIR recipes to me.Nice looking naans as well,I must get round to trying them.

[mickdabass]

It all looks really nice Mike

[Garp]

Some lovely looking baltis being produced by Mike and Gav recently.

I've never made one - waiting on Jerry/Rob reaching the end of the Balti journey. Those are very tempting though

[Invisible Mike]

Looking good,I've always liked the Kushi book.I know some haven't had much success but I've made some lovely curries from it.Never worked out though what makes it a specific 'balti' recipe book,they just look like standard BIR recipes to me.Nice looking naans as well,I must get round to trying them.
[/quot?]



People on here have mentioned baltis tasting "floral". Do all standard baltis from the triangle contain kewra water or is that just the speciality dishes? 

Ps thanks for all your comments.

Mike

[JerryM]

Gav Iscon,

both curries look good. the adey one looks closer to the actual adil offering in terms of color. is there a link to the recipe.

[Gav Iscon]

Gav Iscon,

both curries look good. the adey one looks closer to the actual adil offering in terms of color. is there a link to the recipe.

Jerry, its the ingredients list that is somewhere in this thread taken from Ade at the Adil. Someone (Dal Puri ) noted them down with approx measurements so I just hacked out the cooking bit from the Ade around Britain episode, watched it a few times then attempted to copy it using your Balti GM. The list of ingredients is as follows which you already have posted but not the amounts

Ade