It’s just been announced that Fray Bentos have added a new pie to their expanding range. In this case it’s a vegetarian ‘balti’ pie to follow in the footsteps of their current version of a chicken ‘balti’ pie.  Now, when I was a lad the name Fray Bentos stood for tinned corned beef but more recently they’ve become well known for their range of tinned pies in their distinctive round flat tins. These are a bit of a guilty pleasure for many but why dress their latest product up as a ‘balti’ pie when it’s just a curry flavoured version. Interestingly, if it’s anything like the chicken balti version, the word balti is merely a headline in the name and the ingredients just modestly include the term ‘spices’. It would be interesting to know what the Fray Bentos marketing gurus were thinking when they made up the name … we’ll probably never know but one thing is for certain, I bet they’ve never had a proper balti!

Most things in the Sun newspaper should normally be taken with a pinch of salt particularly when the source is unattributed. However, it was interesting to see that the Birmingham Balti was rated fifth amongst a top ten of regional dishes … below Bakewell Tarts but above Lancashire Hotpot!  It should also be noted that our Capital city didn’t appear in the list… probably because now jellied eels seems to have almost disappeared off the menu, our great Metropolis survives on other people’s culinary inventions!

James Martin seems a decent bloke but this celebrity chef got it badly wrong when he cooked a supposed Balti as part of his feature on Birmingham in his current Great British Adventures series. So what did he get wrong? You can apparently cook a proper Balti in a frying pan and serve up in a separate dish (WRONG!!). You can use ghee (WRONG!!). It’s Indian cooking (WRONG!!). It takes around 25 to 30 minutes to cook (WRONG!!). Using coriander is controversial (WRONG!!). You need to add sugar as it can be slightly bitter (WRONG!!). 

Programme Researchers if you haven’t been sacked yet …. a proper Balti is fast cooked in under 10 minutes using vegetable oil and is a Brummie Pakistani invention that uses a thin pressed steel bowl to both cook and serve up in. Coriander is traditionally sprinkled on the balti before serving and it has a sweeter taste without the need for sugar due to caramelisation that occurs over a high flame. 

Every Brummie knows that their much loved local dish was created in Birmingham and that the real thing is fast cooked in vegetable oil over a high flame and served up in the same pressed steel dish (a sort of flat bottomed wok) in which it is cooked.

Now further research commissioned in the Jewellery Quarter through the University College Birmingham has revealed  unique health and taste properties  by comparing a properly prepared balti in one of the Jewellery Quarter made bowls with a typical pan fried curry.

 It reveals that:

• Traces of health giving iron in a proper balti are twice the amount of a curry cooked in a frying pan and transferred to a separate serving dish ie..Iron content on fast cooked balti cooked and eaten from pressed steel balti bowl (20.9 mg per kg)compared with one slow cooked and transferred to serving bowl (9.5 mg per kg). Given that a typical portion of balti is 360mg then the amount of iron in a proper balti is 7.7mg….. more than twice a normal slow cooked curry

• The fat content of a balti cooked in vegetable oil (which the high flame helps to burn off) is half that of a typical curry with identical ingredients but slower cooked in ghee.Eg.Fat Content on fast cooked balti in veg oil (6.5%) compared with one slow cooked in ghee (10.8%). Salt content on fast cooked balti (0.47%) compared with one slow cooked in ghee (0.59%)In fact,  Iron is recognised as the most important mineral for the survival of the human race and it is vital in giving energy. As the recommended minimum intake for a man is  8.7 mg( its actually 18% for women of child bearing age) a proper balti is a significant contributor!). Incidentally, it is a myth that a pint of Guinness gives the most significant contribution to iron intake as a pint provides just 0.3mg or less so you would need to drink about 25 pints to gain the same benefit as a balti.Incidentally NHS advice on iron intake advises ‘Taking 17mg or less a day of iron supplements is unlikely to cause any harm.’ So the balti dose can only do you good not harm it would appear!

• The slightly sweeter caramelised taste in a balti is caused by the  Maillard reaction, a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars triggered by cooking at high temperatures.

• The method of cooking a genuine balti also seasons the cooking pan giving it natural non stick properties which compares favourably to manufactured non stick cookware where recent research suggests that much of that available may be carcogenic in use. 

ANALYSIS STATS:

• Fat Content on fast cooked balti in veg oil (6.5%) compared with one slow cooked in ghee (10.8%).
• Salt content on fast cooked balti (0.47%) compared with one slow cooked in ghee (0.59%)
• Iron content on fast cooked balti cooked and eaten from pressed steel balti bowl (20.9 mg per kg)compared with one slow cooked and transferred to serving bowl (9.5 mg per kg). Given that a typical portion of balti is 360mg then the amount of iron in a proper balti is 7.7mg ….. more than twice a normal slow cooked curry.
• Iron is recognised as the most important mineral for the survival of the human race and it is vital in giving energy. As the recommended minimum intake for a man is  8.7 mg( its actually 18% for women of child bearing age) a proper balti is a significant contributor!). Incidentally, it is a myth that a pint of Guinness gives the most significant contribution to iron intake as a pint provides just 0.3mg or less so you would need to drink about 25 pints to gain the same benefit as a balti.
• Incidentally, the NHS site states the following. ‘Taking 17mg or less a day of iron supplements is unlikely to cause any harm.’ So the balti dose can only do you good not harm it would appear!

M and S were recently in the news as top Indian chef, Maunika Gowardhan of ‘Indian Kitchen’ fame went into a chilli hot rage. This was over the temerity of M and S to market their new ‘Biryani Wrap’ and Chef Gowardhan (and a few more besides) accused them of cultural appropriation.  Now there’s nothing better than a ‘proper’ biryani as I found out with a fabulous goat version at Birmingham restaurant Opheems. However, nobody in their right mind is going to take the M and S version as pukka. As a Brummie, I could risk raising my blood pressure about the appropriation of Birmingham’s Balti by naming and shaming everything from Balti Pies to Balti Nuts but its like doing a culinary Don Quixote. Best to ensure that people are educated about and enjoy the real thing!

Apparently, we’ve just had National Pie Day and the Beeb asked the question to its footie followers about their favourite match day pie. Whilst no doubt a vegan pie from Forest Green FC might be up there in these culinary correct times, the ubiquitous Balti Pie got an immediate mention. Now we all know it’s just a Curry Pie and it’s about as near to a Balti as Chicken Chow Mein but don’t let that get in the way of recognising one of the best half time treats around. It’s a bit like crossing curry on the hoof with a ‘pukka’ pie and it was undoubtedly a fusion dish before the likes of Jamie Oliver and Co even thought of the fusion concept. By the way, you used to be able to get Balti pies from the supermarket freezer but they seem to have completely disappeared from their cabinets … it’s a mystery I’ve failed to crack!!

Over Xmas, I’ve been catching up on books from foodie celebs waxing lyrical about certain dishes which set me thinking about the perfect Balti. So using the sum total of some of my favourite restaurants (they all have their strengths and weaknesses) I’ve set out my perfect balti meal …. Poppadoms are the intro, free of course in any respectable baltihouse. They should be crisp and dry with a hint of hot oil accompanied by tamarind and mint dips. No self respecting poppadum should be stale or as chewy as a Quality Street toffee and the dips should have some thickness and not run all over the plate like a water spillage. Onto starters and if a Chicken Tikka it should be cooked through with a barbecued taste and not a sloppy offering which tries to disguise it’s shortcomings by glowing in the dark.  If it’s a Sheekh Kebab, then this meaty and spicy offering should be of Zeppelin proportions and have the properties of a telescope thanks to the use of an industrial cooking skewer (can you see out of the other end and shout ‘ship ahoy’!). The kebab shouldn’t be burnt and shrivelled like something out of a medical journal.  If it’s a Vegetable Pakora (or Bhaji) then a crispy ball containing a melange of different vegetables and not  a dessicated microwaved version or worse still some onion rings masquerading as the real thing.  Onto the main event and if it’s not served up in a blackened bowl with handles hotter than the gates of hell then you should be entitled to your money back. The contents should be sizzling at the edges with that trace of caramelisation and if it were a chicken and mushroom variety then it should contain freshly cooked chunks of chicken, rather than precooked slivers as that way the transfer of  flavour  is better. The mushrooms (and this can be a rarity in busy kitchens) should ideally be freshly sliced rather than the slimy tinned version.  Finally the Naan bread shouldn’t be as dry as a stale madeira sponge cake nor should it  be a flaky object served up like it’s been affected with a culinary version of athlete’s foot. Instead, it should be  a fresh yeasty offering with a bubbling surface resembling the moon … and if it’s garlic, enough chunks to frighten away the vampires and not a reluctant dusting from a great height of garlic powder.  And if I was a condemned man, that would have almost been a meal almost worth killing for!

There’s been a bit of adverse publicity recently about the changes to the Triangle since the halcyon days of the dish in the eighties and nineties. However, not only will it always be the home and place where the iconic dish was created, it still has some of the best genuine baltihouses around, as a recent piece on Birmingham Live reveals