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Title: Balti Indian Cooking - Introduction
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There really are Balti people who live in Baltistan. Once it wasa
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 Post's 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 we've
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. _Adil's,_ 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

From: Ian Hoare Date: 29 Dec 96 National
Cooking Echo Ž

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