Punjabi Dahaba Grill

A new restaurant has opened in Kings Heath called the ‘Punjabi Dahaba Grill’ and as I quite like Kings Heath and of course with my personal penchant for ‘Indian’ food, I decided to take away one of their menu leaflets for future reference. There’s vegan soya alternatives … quite apt given the building used to house the Manic Organic Café and some excellent chef’s recommendations such as Halam (lamb cooked with mixed lentils and green chillies) and ‘Hariyali Masala Salmon’ (fillets of salmon flash fried in a green masala sauce, made with fresh coconut, coriander, garlic, mint and chopped tomatoes).

However, undoubtedly their major revelation is their description of Birmingham’s favourite dish ….

‘Classic Original Balti … Unchanged for hundreds of years. Tender chicken, lamb or prawn cooked with ginger, onions, tomatoes and capsicum. A spicy dish served in a balti dish.’

I think I’ll stick with the theory that it’s a Brummie dish invented in our fair city about 40 years ago!

Rip Off Britain

A recent episode of TV’s ‘Rip off Britain‘ highlighted the substitution of other meats for lamb in a comparatively high proportion of UK Curry houses. In fairness, it wasn’t horse, rat or rhinoceros but either beef or mutton. Now if I was a Hindu then beef would be a religious insult so I can understand the concern in that direction even though the blind testers seemed to thoroughly enjoy the substitute.

As regards ‘mutton’, when cooked over a decent period, it is as tender, if not more so than lamb. So in a carnivorous sense a bit of a storm in a baltibowl, in reality. Incidentally, most Balti Houses will advertise Balti Meat which will be mutton but usually none the worse for that.

I paid a visit last week to the Shahi Nan Kebab House on the Stratford Road in the Balti Triangle. it’s one of my favourites even though it will never win any interior design awards. Custom is 90% Asian and it’s usually very busy yet I noticed one of the main guys who usually mans the front counter was missing.

I then went on to have one of the best baltis (a simple chicken and mushroom) that I’ve ever had in the thirty plus years of Balti going. At the end of the meal, the ‘missing’ guy appeared and I shook his hand and asked him to congratulate the chef on a superb meal. He laughed and said that the chef was off on holiday to Pakistan so he had assumed responsibilities. Chef shortage? Not at the Shahi, it would seem!’

Balti and Birmingham were featured this week by prestigious Australian national broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service who were set up to specifically deliver multi cultural and multi lingual broadcasting. One of their team, Carla Grossetti (@carlagrossetti) visited Birmingham to sample the City’s signature dish and suffice to say she left impressed!

For the full story …

The curry drawing tourists to England’s second city – via www.sbs.com.au

Al Frash in the Balti Triangle is in my top five for a ‘proper’ balti so on my recent visit, I was interested to see the menu proffered the option of having my balti cooked in organic coconut oil for a £1-50 premium.

Usually, this sort of thing is a fleeting fad but I have to say my excellent Balti Chicken and Aubergine was superbly enhanced by subtle coconut undertones. Absolutely recommended for taste, never mind the health benefits! Incidentally, this was washed down with a powerful but quaffable 7% coconut porter beer from the Jewellery Quarter’s excellent ‘Burning Soul’ brewery……Nice!’

Andy

The local paper have just run a piece on a ‘Biggest Naan’ completion. Usually these famous ‘table’ naans are usually only possible if the restaurant has a metal tandoor.
Now there’s nothing like a spot of naan sharing but here’s my advice. They look great but never have the lovely doughy consistency of a normal naan. In case you were thinking of asking, my favourite normal sized naan happens to be an incomparable cheese and tomato variety at the Popular restaurant in the heart of Birmingham’s Balti Triangle….naan better!

The Daily Telegraph published an article, just a couple of days ago, about the state of our curry houses. The Chairman of the Asian Catering Federation, Yavar Khan, was intimating that in the next ten years one in two curry houses were likely to close. Most are Bangladeshi owned and the Chairman of the ACF intimated that the restaurant community were both insular and complacent.

So where does the Balti Triangle stand on the issue?

Well, firstly, the shortage of Asian chefs is a real disincentive to open new restaurants and also is a negative for existing ones. Maybe, one of the few good things to come out of Brexit might free up movement from the Indian sub continent. Luckily, most balti houses are family affairs because most young aspiring chefs don’t see fast cooking a traditional balti with traditional ingredients, over a high flame, or risking wrist burns in the tandoor as an exciting or creative culinary career.

The other issue is that these Pakistani restaurants (not unlike those that are Bangladeshi owned) think that sticking to tried and tested ingredients is the safest business proposition. This is particularly frustrating in the case of Balti which is a method of cooking rather than exact ingredients. How about a Duck Balti with Mango or Balti Lamb and Date or Balti Paneer with Fig? The list could be endless and maybe such developments might be Balti’s eventual saviour although a properly cooked Balti with that unique caramelised flavour will hopefully survive the impending curry doomsday forecast by Mr Khan.

ANDY MUNRO