Quote from: livo on July 12, 2022, 11:53 AMI really think that all the flame and fluff is a bit of a show really though. How much of the heat from above (combusting oil splatter) is really doing anything to the food.

In general I agree with you however I've never seen that sort of flame sustained throughout the cooking process. I feel that must have an effect.

Was just looking at Shebabs website and right on their home page is a quote from a customer, "Wanted to order a meat madras but had to order a meat balti and pay extra to have it madras strength upon arrival and tasting there was no flavour and no madras heat tasted bland.
Was expecting alot more from the balti triangle establishment.?  "

Sort of confirms exactly what I thought when I tried the standard curry. I distinctly get the impression that balti equates to blandness.

Quote from: mickdabass on July 12, 2022, 08:41 AMCook a crap curry in a pressed steel bowl and voila...you have created a balti 

That's what 99% of BIRs do though. It's sad.

Quote from: livo on July 12, 2022, 11:29 AMDon't give up on it Santa.

I haven't really given up on it but I'm intrigued now as to how much difference that sustained flame makes to the final flavour. I'm going to have to get a suitable small "balti" dish and give it a go.

Quote from: livo on July 12, 2022, 01:41 AM
Is this a Birmingham Balti?  If it isn't I don't know what is!!!
No way I'm going to get that heat on my cooker.  I could on the 3 ring propane camp burner (maybe).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAd5dM0u7Ss&t=406s

Yes livo that's the real deal from Shebabs in the balti triangle where balti was first concocted. I have to say I've never seen that much flame before though. You probably can reproduce it if you use a substantially smaller pan on the highest flame you have and probably a much smaller curry portion. I've had flame like that, although not sustained, in a normal frying pan on a normal hob so it must be achievable at home. But most hobs at home have an extractor not far above them so I'm not sure it'd be a good idea safety wise. Your camping burner in the open should easily be able to do it I would think.

Quote from: Bob-A-Job on July 06, 2022, 04:48 PMI was told 'Dopiaza' was loosely translated as 'Double Onions'... "Dupiaza" / "strong flavour of onions"... same dish or just a spelling mistake?

That's nothing. Have a look around t'internet at the various spellings of jalfrezi. It's got to be the most varied dish in terms of transliteration. Oh and dopiaza, as far as I know, means  two (do) onion (piaza). The real conundrum is what exactly the "two" refers to. Is it literally two onions? Or is it double the onions, as in twice the amount of a normal curry. Or is it two types of onion? Or is it onions cooked in two different ways? No-one really knows.

livo, the government you lot just kicked out of office did everything in its power to deny anthropogenic climate change in its butt-licking adulation of industrial conglomerates. What goes around comes around 

Well according to the info in the other thread the main difference appears to be in the base sauce which is high in aromatics, particularly cassia. Now that's all well and good if you make the curry with just the base, so the reduced base is the curry sauce, but the minute you add other spices it basically becomes a normal BIR curry. So, on the assumption that all proper (Birmingham) balti curries are distinguishable from a standard BIR curry, and I've no idea whether that assumption is valid or not, I like you am at a loss to understand how that is achieved.

At a guess maybe the balti mix powder that is used for balti curries is heavy on the garam masala to retain that USP of an aromatic curry. And of course it's cooked in a karahi and they claim it's the constant catching fire of the oil that lends an extra dimension to the dish. Anyway what most BIRs present as balti is anything but, being just a standard curry served in a karahi dish. I have bad memories of this as my last curry at a BIR was a "balti" and god was it bland. Or is that deliberate, is that what makes it a balti? It's annoying not to have had any experience of the real deal.

Quote from: Peripatetic Phil on July 05, 2022, 02:07 PMPossibly worth trying a £9.99 Lidl coffee grinder — I've yet to find anything with which mine can't cope ...

I've got a £9 no-name "grinder" off eBay that has stood me in good stead for a few years. The problem is that it's actually a chopper because it's got blades. As good as that is for certain things it can never make a powder as fine as shop bought powders. For that it has to actually grind not cut. Is your Lidl version a grinder or a chopper?

Quote from: livo on July 05, 2022, 12:54 PM
I didn't have a problem with 3 pots.

Well that's my engineering mindset going into optimisation mode. I wanted to do it per the instructions but as I was making it I could see that I could get away with a two pot method and as I thought a bit more I could envisage getting it all done in one pot. At that point the three pot method became a faff.