How would one best describe "the taste of yesteryear" I'm afraid I'm a little too young to have experienced a real old school curry!

Oh right. See what you mean.

Oh right was gonna say RJ is on p32 not 18! I've not done a RJ yet I'll have to try it sometime. Is the book any good. Does it include base sauces?

Authentic Balti Curry book?

I'm looking for a recipe for these tasty keema filled pastries. Has anybody made them?

Went to Saleems tonight after finding out they were closing up. It's tomorrow they are shutting the doors for good btw. I spoke to Saleem's older brother and he says he may open up another restaurant somewhere else eventually. Anyway.. I did a bit of digging and he said their balti is very simple to make (well he would wouldn't he!) From what I gather you make the stock by cooking meat (esp chickens) with onions. In the finished dish he said all you do is add turmeric, chilli and methi. All very simple he said and no tomatoes like the curry houses do it. There is definitely a very strong taste of rich, fresh chicken stock in their dishes. The sort that comes only from boiling up whole carcasses. I'm already making a rough draft of a Saleems replica. If it turns out alright I'll post up my recipe in due course.

All the best.

Last week I made three identical curries at the same time with three very different mix powders (kushi spice, CBM and Martin Vics balti masala.) I did a blind tasting session with the family and do you know what, we all agreed there was very little discernable difference between the three curries. This surprised me but then I've also noted in the past that BIR chefs have said it doesn't matter what you use. See JBs base thread for one example. Curry is definitely technique more than ingredients IMHO.

I think in this case some of the sauce is key to the flavour of the overall dish. Due to the amount of garlic and ginger in it. But this is definitely in part to how it is cooked. Kushi recipes utilise the Tarka/baghaar technique which makes a big difference. I think lots of gently fried garlic is a big key to bir flavour. Hence why JBs base is so popular.

Yup! 

Yep biriyani....or you could add some cooked potatoes and coriander to it to make a kind of Bombay potato...