Balti Indian Cooking - Introduction Recipe
Yield: 1 info sheetRecipe by luhu.jp
Ingredients:
Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.02
Directions:
There really are Balti people who live in Baltistan. Once it was a
kingdom complete with its own royals. Now it is the northernmost part
of Pakistan. It is located on the roof of the world and though few
places are as remote and inhospitable, few people are more friendly
and few have such a colourful history. Their food has evolved over
centuries into pan cooked stir-fries and slow cooked dryish stews.
The results are aromatic and very tasty indeed.
It was an imaginitive restaurateur who, by establishing a Balti
restaurant in, of all places, Birmingham England, a few years ago,
put Balti cooking on the map. It took off in a big way, and just 10
years later there are no less than 100 Balti houses in Birmingham
alone, with dozens more springing up all over the UK, and sweeping
the British Isles in the way that tandoori did two decades ago.
What is Balti? ============== "Seriously delicious" is how Patrick,
Earl of Lichfield, described Balti cooking when he first encountered
it in the company of the Birmingham Posts Carol Ann Rice.
Balti is a type of Kashmiri curry whose origins go back centuries in
the area which is now northern Pakistan. Balti refers both to its
area of origin and the dish in which the food is cooked and served to
the table. Known also as the Karahi, the Balti pan is a round
bottomed, wok like, heavy cast iron dish with two handles. The food
served in the Balti pan are freshly cooked aromatically spiced
curries. Balti food at its best is very aromatic, but not excessively
spiked with chillies. Traditionally it is eaten without rice or
cutlery. Balti bread is used to scoop up the food, using the right
hand only.
The origins of Balti cooking are wide-ranging and owe as much to
China (with a slight resemblance to the spicy cooking of Szechuan)
and Tibet as to the tribal ancestry of the nomad, the tastes of the
moghul emperors, the aromatic spices of Kashmir, and the winter
foods of lands high in the mountains. Balti food is both simple in
its concept and cooking, and complex in its flavours. True Balti food
is dryish and slightly oily and spicily tasty. The modern British
Balti house has retained the traditional concepts, and has widened
the range of Balti to encompass many favourite curries which have
never been heard of in Baltistan.
Whether this modification of the authentic and traditiohnal is a
good thing or a bad thing, is frankly, I believe, irrelevant. The
diners at a Birmingham Balti house have as much in common with a
Balti or Pathan tribesman as an alien from outer space. Indeed many
of the Balti house owners and workers have probably been no nearer to
Baltistan than their customers. Their demands are quite different.
So too are those of householders who want to cook at home. In
Baltistan they cook what they cook, day by day, meal by meal
according to what provisions they have in store. Most of us at home
do the same for our lunch, tea, supper or dinner. Unless we are
planning an elaborate entertaining session, we simply use what weve
got. In this respect, Balti cooking is perfect.
In this book (Balti Curry Cookbook) I give recipes for the two
types of Balti cooking - authentic recipes from Baltistan, and
recipes for Balti dishes as served in the modern Balti restaurant.
The Balti Restaurant ==================== The first Birmingham Balti
restaurants, or houses, were in effect, curry transport cafes.
Furnishings were basic. Formica chairs and tables were bolted to the
floor. They stayed open from 10am to 3am daily and you paid in
advance.A wide choice of dishes were offered, all called Balti this
and Balti that: Balti Meat, Balti Chicken, Balti Prawns, Balti
Vegetables, Balti Dhals. All could be ordered in any combination - so
Balti meat with Peas, or Balti Chicken with Carrots, or Balti Prawns
with Chickpeas or Balti Meat with Chicken or Palti Prawns with Meat
were just some of the examples on theoriginal menu. Spicing was
subtle with an emphasis on fresh garlic, ginger, coriander leaf
(throughout my Balti recipes, the European word coriander will be
used instead of the American/ Latin american cilantro IMH) and
aromatic spices including clove, cassia bark (similar to cinnamon
which can be substituted IMH), cardamoms, aniseed, fennel, cummin and
garam masala. As the restaurateurs were Pakistani Moslems, alcohol
was not served and the Balti House was not licensed.
As times went by clones began to open around the Midlands. By the
mid 1980s, things began to elaborate and menus got longer with some
restaurants offering over 60 Balti dishes. The combinations have
become legendary. _Adils,_ one of the earlies Balti houses offers
such coded delights as Balti Mt-Spi-Cha-Chi-Aub, meaning Balti meat
with spinach, chana dhal, chickpeas and aubergines. Another favourite
is Balti Tropical which is a combination of Balti Meat, Chicken and
Prawns. The ultimate mix is called the Exhausting Balti Dish by at
least two Balti houses. I asked one of the waiters why it was called
Exhausting. Simple, he said in a perfect Kashmiri Brum accent,
it will exhaust you eating it. A better epitaph I cannot write.
Taken from The Balti Curry Cookbook - Pat Chapman ISBN 0 7499 1342 8
Submitted By IAN HOARE On 05-07-95
Title: Balti Cooking - General Hints
Categories: Information, Indian, Balti
Yield: 1 info sheet
A Balti Meal
============
A Balti meal is fun with a number of main dishes. The more people who
are eating a meal, the easier this is. With four people, you might
serve one meat, one poultry, one fish or shellfish, and two vegetable
Balti dishes, plus rice, bread and chutneys. Allow approximately 2 oz
(50g) (uncooked weight) of each of the 5 dishes for each person, plus
2-3 oz (50-75g) extra. For rice allow 2oz (50g) dry uncooked weight
per person for a small portion, 3 oz (75g) for larger appetites. For
lentils, allow 1oz (25g) uncooked weight, minimum, per person.
If all this sounds complicated, it isnt really. as always, common
sense should prevail.
As much of the enjoyment of Balti eating is to mix-and-match
combinations of items (see below), I have adopted a portions formula
in this book which should help you. All meat, chicken and fish or
shellfish recipes are given as four person servings. Vegetables, on
the other hand, are given as single-portion servings. Some items
which you may wish to use a lot of - par cooked meat, lentils etc -
are also given in bulk ten-portion recipes. Using some fresh and some
frozen, will save you time, smells and multiple washing up.
Balti Combination Dishes
========================
The majority of recipes in this book are complete in themselves and
can be served as they are with some bread and/or rice.
For the adventurous, however, the fun has only just begun! The
beauty of Balti is that the dishes are designed to be combined in any
way that takes your fancy or suits the contents of your fridge or
freezer. This can be as simple as adding some plain vegetables to a
particular Balti dish, or could involve combining two, three or more
given Balti dishes into one spectacular combination Balti dish.
There are no rules. The only thing to remember is that you should
aim to have 4 portions of main ingredients per dish to serve 4
people. the main ingredients can be meat, poultry, fish or shellfish,
vegetables or paneer (Indian cheese).
So for example, if you decided to combine Balti Turkey Curry with
some celery (or indeed any other vegetable from chapter 5), for every
1 portion of cooked celery (6oz/175g raw weight) added to the recipe
on p 72, you would reduce the raw turkey by the same amount.
Similarly, if you wanted to combine Balti Prawns (US shrimps) with
Balti keema, you would need only half quantities of each recipe
(since both recipes make 4 portions) to serve 4 people.
For tips and suggestions on combining actual Balti dishes, see
below.
Serving
=======
Traditionally, the various dishes should come to table in a blackened
well-used Balti pot - a two handled wok like pan otherwise known as a
karahi or kari, korai, kadai or kodoi. It is a circular hemispherical
all purpose cooking pot used for stir frying, simmering, frying and
deep frying. Sizes can range from massive (over 3ft 3 in (1m) in
diameter) to small (as little as 3 1/4 in 8 cm).
As for eating Balti, the traditional way in the Balti lands (and in
much of India and Pakistan also, for that matter - IMH ) and at the
Balti house is to use no cutlery. The chapatti or naan is the
traditional implement. Break off a smallish wedge and using your
right hand only, scoop up the food with the bread and pop it and the
bread into your mouth. After practice it becomes quite easy and not
at all messy (true, Ive been eating curries for years like that
IMH). Leave enough bread to do the traditional wipe-up of the dish at
the end. For the faint-hearted, a fork and dessertspoon are the only
acceptable cutlery. A finger bowl and ample napkins are mandatory.
And plenty of finger lickin is expected of you!
Balti combination Dishes
========================
If you cant find your favourite combination on our menu, our chef
will be delighted to cook it especially for you, so says the menu
for the aptly named _I am the King of Balti_ in Birmingham. With over
60 Balti dishes on the menu, you would not imagine more possible
combinations could exist. As Ive mentioned elsewhere, it is the norm
to combine different ingredients and dishes in Balti cooking.
This suits the home cook very well, as you can simply use
ingredients you have to hand. Balti afficionados call this
"mix-n-match". It means you can serve Balti "anything" with
"anything". Balti meat or Balti chicken are perfectly acceptable of
course, but so are Balti meat & mushrooms of Balti chicken and
mushrooms. Or you could have Balti meat with mushrooms and dhal, or
even Balti meat with mushroom, dhal and spinach. Im sure youve got
the picture. the permutations are almost infinite.
Some traditional Balti-house combinations make good reading (and
eating!) and Ive included them. Balti Tropical, for example is equal
amounts of meat, chicken and prawns. Balti Tropical Plus adds keema
(mince or ground meat). Balti Tropical Vegetable combines any six
vegetables of your choice. Bhoti Balti is equal amounts of lamb,
chicken and mixed vegetables.
The main thing to keep in mind is the total weight of ingredients.
the total approximate weight of all your (raw) principal ingredients
should be around 1 1/2 lb to serve four people. So in the case of
Balti Tropical, the raw prepared meat, chicken and prawns will each
weight 8 oz.
To help you work out quantities, all recipes state how many portions
they make. If you require only one portion of a recipe that makes 4
portions, you will find it more practical to cook the complete recipe
and freeze the surplus. Some suggestions:- Balti Meat & Chicken Balti
Tropical Balti Tropical Plus Prawns & Keema Bhola Balti Balti
Chicken & Egg Lentils & Potato Tomato, Celery, corn & snow pea
Lobia Beans, Mushrooms & Spinach. Submitted By IAN HOARE On
05-07-95
Source from luhu.jp
kingdom complete with its own royals. Now it is the northernmost part
of Pakistan. It is located on the roof of the world and though few
places are as remote and inhospitable, few people are more friendly
and few have such a colourful history. Their food has evolved over
centuries into pan cooked stir-fries and slow cooked dryish stews.
The results are aromatic and very tasty indeed.
It was an imaginitive restaurateur who, by establishing a Balti
restaurant in, of all places, Birmingham England, a few years ago,
put Balti cooking on the map. It took off in a big way, and just 10
years later there are no less than 100 Balti houses in Birmingham
alone, with dozens more springing up all over the UK, and sweeping
the British Isles in the way that tandoori did two decades ago.
What is Balti? ============== "Seriously delicious" is how Patrick,
Earl of Lichfield, described Balti cooking when he first encountered
it in the company of the Birmingham Posts Carol Ann Rice.
Balti is a type of Kashmiri curry whose origins go back centuries in
the area which is now northern Pakistan. Balti refers both to its
area of origin and the dish in which the food is cooked and served to
the table. Known also as the Karahi, the Balti pan is a round
bottomed, wok like, heavy cast iron dish with two handles. The food
served in the Balti pan are freshly cooked aromatically spiced
curries. Balti food at its best is very aromatic, but not excessively
spiked with chillies. Traditionally it is eaten without rice or
cutlery. Balti bread is used to scoop up the food, using the right
hand only.
The origins of Balti cooking are wide-ranging and owe as much to
China (with a slight resemblance to the spicy cooking of Szechuan)
and Tibet as to the tribal ancestry of the nomad, the tastes of the
moghul emperors, the aromatic spices of Kashmir, and the winter
foods of lands high in the mountains. Balti food is both simple in
its concept and cooking, and complex in its flavours. True Balti food
is dryish and slightly oily and spicily tasty. The modern British
Balti house has retained the traditional concepts, and has widened
the range of Balti to encompass many favourite curries which have
never been heard of in Baltistan.
Whether this modification of the authentic and traditiohnal is a
good thing or a bad thing, is frankly, I believe, irrelevant. The
diners at a Birmingham Balti house have as much in common with a
Balti or Pathan tribesman as an alien from outer space. Indeed many
of the Balti house owners and workers have probably been no nearer to
Baltistan than their customers. Their demands are quite different.
So too are those of householders who want to cook at home. In
Baltistan they cook what they cook, day by day, meal by meal
according to what provisions they have in store. Most of us at home
do the same for our lunch, tea, supper or dinner. Unless we are
planning an elaborate entertaining session, we simply use what weve
got. In this respect, Balti cooking is perfect.
In this book (Balti Curry Cookbook) I give recipes for the two
types of Balti cooking - authentic recipes from Baltistan, and
recipes for Balti dishes as served in the modern Balti restaurant.
The Balti Restaurant ==================== The first Birmingham Balti
restaurants, or houses, were in effect, curry transport cafes.
Furnishings were basic. Formica chairs and tables were bolted to the
floor. They stayed open from 10am to 3am daily and you paid in
advance.A wide choice of dishes were offered, all called Balti this
and Balti that: Balti Meat, Balti Chicken, Balti Prawns, Balti
Vegetables, Balti Dhals. All could be ordered in any combination - so
Balti meat with Peas, or Balti Chicken with Carrots, or Balti Prawns
with Chickpeas or Balti Meat with Chicken or Palti Prawns with Meat
were just some of the examples on theoriginal menu. Spicing was
subtle with an emphasis on fresh garlic, ginger, coriander leaf
(throughout my Balti recipes, the European word coriander will be
used instead of the American/ Latin american cilantro IMH) and
aromatic spices including clove, cassia bark (similar to cinnamon
which can be substituted IMH), cardamoms, aniseed, fennel, cummin and
garam masala. As the restaurateurs were Pakistani Moslems, alcohol
was not served and the Balti House was not licensed.
As times went by clones began to open around the Midlands. By the
mid 1980s, things began to elaborate and menus got longer with some
restaurants offering over 60 Balti dishes. The combinations have
become legendary. _Adils,_ one of the earlies Balti houses offers
such coded delights as Balti Mt-Spi-Cha-Chi-Aub, meaning Balti meat
with spinach, chana dhal, chickpeas and aubergines. Another favourite
is Balti Tropical which is a combination of Balti Meat, Chicken and
Prawns. The ultimate mix is called the Exhausting Balti Dish by at
least two Balti houses. I asked one of the waiters why it was called
Exhausting. Simple, he said in a perfect Kashmiri Brum accent,
it will exhaust you eating it. A better epitaph I cannot write.
Taken from The Balti Curry Cookbook - Pat Chapman ISBN 0 7499 1342 8
Submitted By IAN HOARE On 05-07-95
Title: Balti Cooking - General Hints
Categories: Information, Indian, Balti
Yield: 1 info sheet
A Balti Meal
============
A Balti meal is fun with a number of main dishes. The more people who
are eating a meal, the easier this is. With four people, you might
serve one meat, one poultry, one fish or shellfish, and two vegetable
Balti dishes, plus rice, bread and chutneys. Allow approximately 2 oz
(50g) (uncooked weight) of each of the 5 dishes for each person, plus
2-3 oz (50-75g) extra. For rice allow 2oz (50g) dry uncooked weight
per person for a small portion, 3 oz (75g) for larger appetites. For
lentils, allow 1oz (25g) uncooked weight, minimum, per person.
If all this sounds complicated, it isnt really. as always, common
sense should prevail.
As much of the enjoyment of Balti eating is to mix-and-match
combinations of items (see below), I have adopted a portions formula
in this book which should help you. All meat, chicken and fish or
shellfish recipes are given as four person servings. Vegetables, on
the other hand, are given as single-portion servings. Some items
which you may wish to use a lot of - par cooked meat, lentils etc -
are also given in bulk ten-portion recipes. Using some fresh and some
frozen, will save you time, smells and multiple washing up.
Balti Combination Dishes
========================
The majority of recipes in this book are complete in themselves and
can be served as they are with some bread and/or rice.
For the adventurous, however, the fun has only just begun! The
beauty of Balti is that the dishes are designed to be combined in any
way that takes your fancy or suits the contents of your fridge or
freezer. This can be as simple as adding some plain vegetables to a
particular Balti dish, or could involve combining two, three or more
given Balti dishes into one spectacular combination Balti dish.
There are no rules. The only thing to remember is that you should
aim to have 4 portions of main ingredients per dish to serve 4
people. the main ingredients can be meat, poultry, fish or shellfish,
vegetables or paneer (Indian cheese).
So for example, if you decided to combine Balti Turkey Curry with
some celery (or indeed any other vegetable from chapter 5), for every
1 portion of cooked celery (6oz/175g raw weight) added to the recipe
on p 72, you would reduce the raw turkey by the same amount.
Similarly, if you wanted to combine Balti Prawns (US shrimps) with
Balti keema, you would need only half quantities of each recipe
(since both recipes make 4 portions) to serve 4 people.
For tips and suggestions on combining actual Balti dishes, see
below.
Serving
=======
Traditionally, the various dishes should come to table in a blackened
well-used Balti pot - a two handled wok like pan otherwise known as a
karahi or kari, korai, kadai or kodoi. It is a circular hemispherical
all purpose cooking pot used for stir frying, simmering, frying and
deep frying. Sizes can range from massive (over 3ft 3 in (1m) in
diameter) to small (as little as 3 1/4 in 8 cm).
As for eating Balti, the traditional way in the Balti lands (and in
much of India and Pakistan also, for that matter - IMH ) and at the
Balti house is to use no cutlery. The chapatti or naan is the
traditional implement. Break off a smallish wedge and using your
right hand only, scoop up the food with the bread and pop it and the
bread into your mouth. After practice it becomes quite easy and not
at all messy (true, Ive been eating curries for years like that
IMH). Leave enough bread to do the traditional wipe-up of the dish at
the end. For the faint-hearted, a fork and dessertspoon are the only
acceptable cutlery. A finger bowl and ample napkins are mandatory.
And plenty of finger lickin is expected of you!
Balti combination Dishes
========================
If you cant find your favourite combination on our menu, our chef
will be delighted to cook it especially for you, so says the menu
for the aptly named _I am the King of Balti_ in Birmingham. With over
60 Balti dishes on the menu, you would not imagine more possible
combinations could exist. As Ive mentioned elsewhere, it is the norm
to combine different ingredients and dishes in Balti cooking.
This suits the home cook very well, as you can simply use
ingredients you have to hand. Balti afficionados call this
"mix-n-match". It means you can serve Balti "anything" with
"anything". Balti meat or Balti chicken are perfectly acceptable of
course, but so are Balti meat & mushrooms of Balti chicken and
mushrooms. Or you could have Balti meat with mushrooms and dhal, or
even Balti meat with mushroom, dhal and spinach. Im sure youve got
the picture. the permutations are almost infinite.
Some traditional Balti-house combinations make good reading (and
eating!) and Ive included them. Balti Tropical, for example is equal
amounts of meat, chicken and prawns. Balti Tropical Plus adds keema
(mince or ground meat). Balti Tropical Vegetable combines any six
vegetables of your choice. Bhoti Balti is equal amounts of lamb,
chicken and mixed vegetables.
The main thing to keep in mind is the total weight of ingredients.
the total approximate weight of all your (raw) principal ingredients
should be around 1 1/2 lb to serve four people. So in the case of
Balti Tropical, the raw prepared meat, chicken and prawns will each
weight 8 oz.
To help you work out quantities, all recipes state how many portions
they make. If you require only one portion of a recipe that makes 4
portions, you will find it more practical to cook the complete recipe
and freeze the surplus. Some suggestions:- Balti Meat & Chicken Balti
Tropical Balti Tropical Plus Prawns & Keema Bhola Balti Balti
Chicken & Egg Lentils & Potato Tomato, Celery, corn & snow pea
Lobia Beans, Mushrooms & Spinach. Submitted By IAN HOARE On
05-07-95
Source from luhu.jp