Topic: Balti

[livo]

Rather than continue to clutter mick's thread, let's discuss Balti in general here.  I don't expect to solve this but it will make for interesting discussion.

Balti is a word which apparently translates to bucket.  Balti is a dish.  Here is the conundrum.  The passion of Balti.  Do an internet search and you'll find plenty of things claiming to be Balti.  So supposedly it started in the 1970's in Birmingham, but there is a claim from Rishton's Chef Hussain that he's cooking one with a recipe and style handed down through the family since the 1930's. How can that be?

What exactly constitutes a real, proper, authentic Balti?

1) Geography
2) Ingredients
3) Cooking / serving utensil
4) Heat / flame
5) Spice blend
6) Some of the above
7) All of the above from 1 - 5.

Why?
1) Balti comes from Birmingham. End of story. Like Champagne, Bourbon and Single Malt Scotch. Geographically restricted to an area. In this case Brum Balti or nothing.  You can't even cook one in Baltistan.
2) Consists only of fresh ingredients (but you can get a Tikka Balti if you want. Huh???)
3) Has to be cooked in a Birmingham Balti Co. Balti pan and served in it as well.
4) Cooked on high heat with the flame burning off some of the excess of oil.  We've seen it, commented on it and the result of not doing it will be an excessively oily dish. I've just experienced that but according to Chef Zaf Hussain, you can just spoon it off.
5) Uses a specific set of Balti spices (unless you put something else in)
6) If you skip one or 3 of these it could potentially still be a Balti, maybe.
7) To be a proper Balti it must tick all of these boxes from 1 - 5.  Any deviation and it's not a proper BB.

I can go and buy a jar of Balti paste, or make my own from a recipe as I've done.  I can cook a dish from that following instructions, recipes or based on previous experience.  Have I cooked a Balti or not?  I can follow MDB's Chicken Balti (Al Frash) recipe or the Rishton Chicken Balti, or now Shababs Chicken Balti (ala Misty Ricardo).  All 3 from Birmingham Balti restaurants. All purportedly Chicken Balti.  It should be the same dish, right??  However, a quick look at the ingredients and cooking (I've only done 1 so far) shows that they are completely different.

What do you think?

[George]

What do you think?

I think it's a marketing gimmick. The BIR industry succeeded in creating a whole new category of dishes, generating further interest in Indian restaurants.

I find it hard to believe there's any difference between using a normal pan and a balti dish for the cooking. Maybe even Shababs use a normal pan, when they are not being filmed or observed by a visitor.

I have tried only three types of balti curry: (1) chilled food dishes from supermarkets, all lacklustre and nothing special at all; (2) a few chicken balti dishes from provincial Indian restaurants - again nothing special and not a dish I would order again from the same restaurant; (3) Shababs - the only one I rated as merit worthy, not one of the tastiest curries I have ever enjoyed but just below that level. The intriguing thing was that I wouldn't have known where to start in recreating the same flavour at home. It was somewhat unusual. But now, R Sayce has published a recipe and it will be interesting to see if it delivers a similar taste. I will try to find the time to prepare his recipe, ahead of a planned, third visit to Shababs in October.

[Peripatetic Phil]

3) Has to be cooked in a Birmingham Balti Co. Balti pan and served in it as well.

The Birmingham Balti Bowl Co. Ltd. was incorporated on 28-Apr-2021 — how, then, were authentic Birmingham baltis cooked prior to the date ?
--
** Phil.

[livo]

Good to know that George has eaten one of these mysterious meals. Please cook it to tell us if it's the real deal.

Phil, the pan propaganda has been around since well before that date. I saw it years ago.  Maybe someone's recently invested some money.

[Secret Santa]

3) Has to be cooked in a Birmingham Balti Co. Balti pan and served in it as well.

The Birmingham Balti Bowl Co. Ltd. was incorporated on 28-Apr-2021 — how, then, were authentic Birmingham baltis cooked prior to the date ?
--
** Phil.

Without looking it up to provide exact details the pans used to be made in a factory that closed down and so they found a new supplier.

[Secret Santa]

Apparently there used to be around 400 balti houses (I think in Brum but not sure). Now there's about six. Make of that what you will.

[Secret Santa]

What exactly constitutes a real, proper, authentic Balti?

One that originates in Brum and isn't made by the addition of a teaspoon of Pataks balti paste.

[livo]

Immediately after starting this thread I sat and searched for balti information while i had a cup of coffee.  I sat for about a half hour and you probably won't be surprised.

First I checked around a bit to see if I could go and buy one.  There are 3 well regarded Indian restaurants around me, one of which was award winning for consecutive years. I've dined at all 3 over a period of 30 years and enjoyed it every time.  A Balti dish is not on their menus.  So I searched for Balti in Sydney and the top link was to a restaurant called The Colonial something which claims to serve British curry. A report on Trip Advisor claimed the Balti was the best this side of Birmingham. Promising. Checked the menu. No Balti.  Come to think of it, I can't recall seeing a balti on a menu out here.

I then started looking for balti recipes.  Every man and his dog (plus women as well) has a recipe for Balti Chicken. Of course they are all "authentic" and they almost invariably have a little story about the origins of balti and then present the recipe containing balti paste. Within a very short time I'd read about 20 ingredient lists. I even watched a video of a BIR Chef cooking Balti Chicken w/ Pataks paste. Pataks even have there own videos on how to make authentic balti like a chef.  Some recipes have sugar added.  Some also have lemon juice and that reminded me of the Mr Huda ingredients.

So then I looked at the pastes. They have sweetening (mango chutney) and souring agents. Tamarind or lemon juice and there are mentions of food acid and citric acid. (Not uncommon as it's for preserving)  None of these sweetening and souring agents are in the 3 balti restaurant videos.  I think Jamie Oliver adds citric acid in his recipe. Why? 

On to recipes for balti pastes. There aren't many. I again found the one that I have been using for over 10 years. I found one that is a possible contender using less spices and then there are a few that supposedly show how to make balti sauce or balti gravy but these are individual dish preparations and not a preserved paste.  When you look at the spices used in the 3 Birmingham baltis, it is nothing special so a good usable balti paste (preserved) should be a relatively easy project to nut out using basic principles.

I thoroughly enjoy the balti paste I make and use. It adds wonderful flavour and I've had jars keep in the fridge for several years without issue. I have no problem adding a good dollop to Mick's 100% clone base gravy when cooking balti chicken.  I haven't recently tried Pataks balti but I do use their commercial butter chicken paste, which i quite like, and use frequently.  Many years ago I used to use the Pataks balti stri fry sauce (and other flavours) that came ready to cook in a tin can. I don't see them any more, not that I'd use them now.

The other paste I regularly use now is Rik's (loveitspicy) Madras paste. Using a tsp of this with about 2 tsp of home made balti paste in a double serve of mdb's balti chicken makes a great curry, and I'll call it a balti every day.  It's probably closer to a real one than most online.

I noticed last night that my container of Balti Garam Masala is empty so today I will research and compare these spice blends. I'll wager there is a wide variety all supposedly the same thing.

Wait until you see the balti I prepared last night.    Absolutely delicious and the ingredient list will surprise you.

[livo]

The video I referred to above.  Chicken Balti by Indian Restaurant Cooking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjPEVG6tfp4&list=WL&index=1&t=102s

[Secret Santa]

I think Jamie Oliver adds citric acid in his recipe. Why?

Because he's a clueless chav, that's why.

It's really easy to fall down the balti rabbit hole but when you think the addition of any variety of "balti" paste makes a proper balti you've fallen a bit too far.