Perusing my local Oxfam bookshop, I happened upon a book published by Francis Frith(the postcard people) called ‘Flavours of Birmingham and the West Midlands’. Squeezed between a recipe for ‘Birmingham Soup’ and ‘Tripe and Onions’ was a more appetising page entitled ‘Balti Triangle’!

What caught my eye was the description of what a balti is which was described far better and more accurately than the plethora of famous and infamous ‘curry’ authors who wouldn’t know a proper balti if they tripped over it!

So here’s the gist of the description in the ‘Flavours of Birmingham’ book …

‘A balti is a spicy aromatic dish originally devised in the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham in the 1970s … It is cooked in a special flat bottomed, two handled cooking pot made of thin pressed steel which heats up quickly when placed over a flame and allows food to be cooked very quickly using the stir fry process … The food is both cooked and served in the cooking pot also called a balti …!

Hurrah!!!