Topic: Balti

[livo]

That's twice now I've had to google something. First it wasTrilby hats and now chavs.

[Peripatetic Phil]

That's twice now I've had to google something. First it wasTrilby hats and now chavs.

Well, now you know how we poor Britons feel when faced with impenetrabilia such as "arvo", "barbie", "dinkum", "flannie", "ripper" and "sheila" !

[livo]

Fair suck of the sav Phil. Don't come the raw prawn with us. They're all bonza words.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Fair suck of the sav Phil. Don't come the raw prawn with us. They're all bonza words.

'Ere, you taking the gypsy's, me old China ?  It's all bubble to me, a right load of cobblers.

[livo]

About two weeks ago, I was watching every YouTube video and reading every recipe I could find about Balti.  I watched one particular Balti video on YouTube by a chef from an operational BIR, which was not claiming to be a "Birmingham Balti", but a Balti nonetheless.  So I asked in the comments, "What in your opinion makes a dish a Balti?".  His video recipe used a Balti Paste and as he has his own line of curry related products, I thought he might make his own paste, so I also asked what paste he used?

Today, I received a reply.  Keep in mind that this video is for a BIR Balti dish (ie: not claiming to be a replica Brum Balti from 1978).  Now, I'm not casting any aspersions upon this chef.  In fact I've cooked his recipes before today and enjoyed them.  The recipe for this Balti curry looks good to me although I haven't tried it yet. However, in the interests of this discussion about what is a Balti, I thought his answer was pertinent.

Here is the answer:  "Balti paste makes it a balti because it completely alters the flavour. We use pataks."

So there you have it!  A BIR Balti dish is classified as such because of flavour, and that flavour is Patak's Balti Paste.

[Secret Santa]

So there you have it!  A BIR Balti dish is classified as such because of flavour, and that flavour is Patak's Balti Paste.

It's not even worth discussing. If it has Patak's balti paste it isn't a balti.

[livo]

You know that and I know that, according to some definitions of Balti.  I've been cooking authentic Birmingham Balti from scratch (supposedly).  I haven't yet tried Misty Ricardo's version of the Shababs Balti using Balti base gravy but I have cooked it from individual ingredients (supposedly).  The thing is that here is a practicing BIR chef who cooks and sells Balti.

So I again ask the question, what actually constitutes a dish being a Balti?

[tempest63]

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?

[livo]

That introduction from PC is probably the principle source of the many various blurbs of the same story. While I'd never read that quote verbatim, I have read many iterations of the exact same story over and over.  Its everywhere with and without embelishment. There is no doubt that the original authentic Birmingham Balti happened as described, some time nearly 50 years ago.  It would take the unquestioned word of someone who was there to put any argument to rest. Perhaps Andy Munroe is that person.  Who knows?  However, at some point, one day in the 1970s, a cook made and served the first "Balti" in a commercial setting.  It probably wasn't the first one ever cooked though, and how did that first one evolve into such a raging success?

What we don't know is just how close it is to the Baltistan meals cooked in the mountains.  The quoted definition, or description, of the Balti dish raises further questions though, and that's the dilemma.
Can you cook a Balti in a wok with only 1 straight handle?  What about an aluminium curry pan?
If you can and do, or use the proper cooking equipment, is it still a Balti if it's served in crockery or decorative copper serving bowl?
Is there a specific set of spices (Kashmiri or otherwise) that can be used? MDB uses ajwain in the 100% clone base but it's not in anything else I've found about Balti.
Do the spices have to be in individual form or are Balti masalas or pastes acceptable, either self prepared or commercial?
Does a real Balti have to be cooked from individual fresh ingredients? How were the originals made? If the base gravy and pre-cooked ingredients method is used, is it still a Balti?
Is Balti a cooking style, a serving style, or an experience?
Is Balti a flavour? It would appear that within the contemporary BIR industry it is and that flavour is easily obtained. Pataks paste.

As I've found over the years that I've been interested in this culinary hobby, Balti is just a word that's been appropriated and attached to any number of different concoctions. Some may closely resemble traditional Baltistan meals. Some may link directly and closely to 1970s Birmingham. Others may just have a bought flavour that the masses have come to accept.  My recent interest has again shown that anyone can call anything a Balti depending on it fitting rather loosely into any one or more of the rather wide ranging qualifications, or even not.

The surprising thing to me is that 1976 was only 46 years ago.  A young chef starting out in a Birmingham Balti house at that time could still be working today, or at worst only recently retired.  If these Balti houses popped up everywhere right up to the 1990s this is recent history.  Clearly, by the shear number of Balti houses that existed at that time and thereafter, just around that area, there must be hundreds of people still living who worked in those kitchens.  Some would presumably be still working in the industry.  Are the Shababs, et al, versions recently released the real deal or the 2020s version?

I'm going to conduct an experiment today. I'll cook the same fresh ingredient Shababs Balti I've been cooking recently and I'll also cook the Shababs bulk cook (base gravy) method as presented by Misty Ricardo in the recent Andy Munroe video. It will be interesting to compare the 2 Baltis.

[livo]

Preparation for 2 methods of Shababs Balti Chicken complete.  I'll cook them this afternoon ready for dinner tonight.

It is already evident that the version using base gravy will be more flavoursome.  Cardamom, both green and black, Tej Pat, Cassia and Cloves are not in the cook from scratch version.  I guess you could temper these spices in the oil to commence with for this version to bring it closer to the base gravy version.  The cook from scratch version uses more onion and fresh tomato then the gravy method, but this would essentially balance out.