I think you have answered a big part of my question right there Phil.  Oxymoronic.  I would appear to me that in much of Indian cooking people just throw in an Indian food name or two or three just for the sake of it.

Didn't someone here recently cook a Tikka Bhuna Tandoori Balti Chicken Korma or something similar?

As Jerry says, I believe the waters have been muddied.

Good to see you making headway.  I had to cook another batch of the slow lamb.  It's so good.

Thanks to all, and especially to Noble Ox. I think I'll understand the answers.  I say 20 years regularly as in fairly often, but not weekly of even close in terms of regular meals.  It has not been a major part of our diet, just an occasional treat.  Your answers so far actually reflect the exact point of query. Simply a point of clarification.  From this side of the planet I've not eaten a genuine Brum Balti and so have no idea as to what it should be like. Shops sell "Balti" but is it really?

Phil, can you have a Balti CTM, or a BIR CTM or a traditional style CTM? (or even an AIR CTM).  They would all be Chicken Tikka Masala but different.  I guess this is the question your asking of me.  My research outside this forum leads to information that simply says a Balti is a meatier version (or less saucy version) served in a balti dish.  I would think there is obviously more to it than that.

Jerry has more or less given me the clarification I was after and some direction.  Now clearer in my mind than mud.  As I said, I still consider myself very much a beginner in this style of cooking.

I hope this gives a better idea into my questions?

I'm not happy to play a guitar but I build them and amplifiers. Practise is one thing and knowledge is more.

Even though I've been cooking "Indian" and "Sri Lankan" dishes for over 20 years on a fairly regular basis, I still consider myself to be very much a beginner in terms of full understanding.  Sure I can reproduce dishes and they are good but there are still elements of doubt and uncertainty.

I would very much like to open a discussion on Styles of Indian cookery as I feel it may help other beginners to understand what I hope is the concept.  This site is clearly directed towards the BIR style of dish preparation as opposed to traditional. Fair enough and the difference there is fairly straight forward.  I also found good reference to Aussie style which helped me so much as well but it is very different to BIR.

What is the difference between BIR and Balti?  Is Balti just a small sub category of BIR?  Are the only differences in the fact that Balti is less wet and served in a Balti?

I can cook a CTM Aussie Style, Traditional, BIR and probably Balti, (I haven't tried yet).  Is it simply a variation of cookery style to come to a dish that is pretty much a CTM?

I believe I could recreate that from the video (or bloody close to anyway) however it could use some improvement in production.  Forgive my ignorance but what is 7K?  Is it 7 kg of onions?

The whole video could easily be reduced to half the time for starters.  Far too long spent looking at a pile of onions, a boiled jug of water and a spoon in a pot. Plus then the music would run to the end.  By the way I didn't mind the music either.  Could use some sitar or bagpipes though. ;D

The first caption says "Roughfly". Should be "roughly" and roughly what?

After the 1.5 litres of oil is added "cook for 30 mins with".   With what?

Other than that I'll give it a go.  Plus I like the consistency at the end and he says to cook for a further 15 minutes at use time in the finished dish so I imagine it will be quite thick which is how I like it.

Brilliant. I love creative covers and bluegrass so that ticks both boxes for me.

Led Zeppelin never looked this good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJC4RUBbtpE

Somebody's gotta get this girl some lectricity.

Heston's meat is a bit rare for me too.  I don't mind pink middle but I like the animal to be dead.

At the Asian Grocery yesterday and I noticed a product they have in the Indian section called Melam Egg Roast Masala, a powdered spice blend made up specifically to do eggs.

A big favourite of mine is curried egg sandwich and I'm partial to a korma.  Can't hurt to try it out.

I haven't tried it but I will. Once I find some melon seed and white poppy seed that is.