![Balti gosht](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Balti_gosht.jpg)
A balti or bāltī gosht ( ur, , hi, बाल्टी गोश्त) is a type of
curry
A curry is a dish with a sauce seasoned with spices, mainly associated with South Asian cuisine. In southern India, leaves from the curry tree may be included.
There are many varieties of curry. The choice of spices for each dish in tradit ...
served in a thin, pressed-steel
wok
A wok (; Pinyin: ; Cantonese ) is a deep round-bottomed cooking pan from China. It is believed to be derived from the South Asian karahi. It is common in China and similar pans are found in parts of East, South and Southeast Asia, as well as ...
called a "balti bowl". The name may have come from the metal dish in which the curry is cooked,
[ rather than from any specific ingredient or cooking technique. ''Balti'' curries are cooked quickly using ]vegetable oil
Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of fruits. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed oils, or fat ...
rather than ghee
Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from India. It is commonly used in India for cooking, as a traditional medicine, and for religious rituals.
Description
Ghee is typically prepared by simmering butter, which is churned from c ...
, over high heat in the manner of a stir-fry, and any meat is used off the bone. This combination differs sharply from a traditional one-pot Indian curry which is simmered slowly all day. ''Balti'' sauce is based on garlic
Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus ''Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Allium fistulosum, Welsh onion and Allium chinense, Chinese onion. It is native to South A ...
and onion
An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...
s, with turmeric
Turmeric () is a flowering plant, ''Curcuma longa'' (), of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, the rhizomes of which are used in cooking. The plant is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous plant native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asi ...
and ''garam masala
Garam masala Hindustani_language.html"_;"title="rom_Hindustani_language">Hindustani_/_(''garm_masala'',_"hot_spices")is_a_Spice_mix.html" ;"title="Hindustani language">Hindustani / (''garm masala'', "hot spices")">Hindustani_language.html" ;"tit ...
'', among other spices.[
''Balti gosht'' is eaten in ]North India
North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...
and some parts of Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, as well as other parts of the world, such as Great Britain. The food seems to have arrived in England in Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
in 1971; sources suggest that it might have originated from Baltistan
Baltistan ( ur, ; bft, སྦལ་ཏི་སྟཱན, script=Tibt), also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet ( bft, སྦལ་ཏི་ཡུལ་།, script=Tibt), is a mountainous region in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilg ...
in the northern part of the region of Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, but the exact origin is still unclear.
Origin, history and etymology
''Balti'', as a food, is named after the steel or iron pot in which it is cooked, similar to a karahi
A ''karahi'' (; as, কেৰাহী, kerahi, bn, কড়া, koṛā, hi, कड़ाही, kaṛāhī, Marathi: कढई, ur, ; also ''kadai, kerahi, karai, kadhi, kadahi, kadhai'' ''sarai'', or ''cheena chatti'') is a type of thi ...
from the same region.
The word is found in Hindustani, Odia
Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to:
* Odia people in Odisha, India
* Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family
* Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...
and Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
, and means "bucket". The word developed from the Portuguese ''balde'', meaning bucket or pail, and traveled to the Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
via the Portuguese seafaring enterprises of the early 16th century. The word likely made its way into the English language during the time of British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
.
According to Pat Chapman
Patrick Lawrence Chapman (20 December 1940 – 22 July 2022) was an English food writer, broadcaster and author, best known for founding The Curry Club.
Early days
Chapman was born in London during the Blitz. His grandfather had achieved seni ...
, a food historian
Food history is an interdisciplinary field that examines the history and the cultural, economic, environmental, and sociological impacts of food and human nutrition. It is considered distinct from the more traditional field of culinary history, ...
, the origins of the word can be traced to the area of Baltistan
Baltistan ( ur, ; bft, སྦལ་ཏི་སྟཱན, script=Tibt), also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet ( bft, སྦལ་ཏི་ཡུལ་།, script=Tibt), is a mountainous region in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilg ...
, in the northern part of the region of Kashmir
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
, where a cast-iron wok, similar to the Chinese wok, is used for cooking. Baltistan shares a border with China. In his '' Curry Club Balti Curry Cookbook,'' Chapman states:
However, Colleen Taylor Sen
Colleen Taylor Sen is a Canadian–American translator and author specializing in Indian cuisine. She has written eight books, many articles and has also contributed entries to encyclopedias.
Early life
Sen was born in Toronto. She holds a B.A ...
states that the origins of ''balti gosht'' are unclear, as the food eaten in Baltistan "bears no resemblance" to ''balti gosht.'' As such, the name of the food may have originated from the fact that '' bāltī gosht'' is cooked in a pot resembling a ''baltī'', the Hindustani word for bucket.
Another claim regarding the origin of ''balti'' cooking in Birmingham was that it was first served in 1977 in a restaurant called Adil's. At that time, the restaurant was located in Stoney Lane, Sparkbrook
Sparkbrook is an inner-city area in south-east Birmingham, England. It is one of the four wards forming the Hall Green formal district within Birmingham City Council.
Etymology
The area receives its name from Spark Brook, a small stream that f ...
, and after some time relocated to another area, but since has returned to its original place in Stoney Lane.[
]
Balti houses
''Balti'' restaurants are often known in Birmingham as 'balti houses'. Some balti houses have a plate of glass on the table top with menus secured beneath. Balti houses typically offer large ''karack'' naan
Naan ( fa, نان, nān, ur, , ps, نان, ug, نان, hi, नान, bn, নান) is a leavened, oven-baked or tawa-fried flatbread which is found in the cuisines mainly of Western Asia, Central Asia, Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, Ma ...
bread pieces, to be shared by the whole table.
Balti houses were originally clustered along and behind the main road between Sparkhill
Sparkhill is an inner-city area of Birmingham, England, situated between Springfield, Hall Green and Sparkbrook.
Historically part of Worcestershire, Sparkhill once existed as a rural area with its main industry being agriculture until the 18 ...
and Moseley
Moseley is a suburb of south Birmingham, England, south of the city centre. The area is a popular cosmopolitan residential location and leisure destination, with a number of bars and restaurants. The area also has a number of boutiques and ot ...
, to the south of Birmingham city centre. This area, comprising Ladypool Road, Stoney Lane, and Stratford Road, is still sometimes referred to as the 'Balti Triangle', and contains a high concentration of ''balti'' restaurants. On 28 July 2005, a tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...
caused extensive damage to buildings in the triangle, forcing many restaurants to close. Most reopened by the beginning of 2006.
''Balti'' restaurants have now spread beyond the triangle, and can also be found in the south of Birmingham, along the Pershore Rd in Stirchley. Lye
A lye is a metal hydroxide traditionally obtained by leaching wood ashes, or a strong alkali which is highly soluble in water producing caustic basic solutions. "Lye" most commonly refers to sodium hydroxide (NaOH), but historically has been u ...
near Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 20 ...
to the west of Birmingham has become known as the 'Balti Mile' with up to a dozen restaurants clustered along the High Street.
The food and its style of presentation proved very popular during the 1980s, and popularity grew in the 1990s. ''Balti'' restaurants gradually opened up throughout the West Midlands
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
, and then a large part of Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
. The expanded curry market in Britain is now said to take in 4 billion pounds sterling per year.
Outside Britain, a small number of balti houses are in Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
and many other English-speaking countries, particularly New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
and Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
Since the late 1990s, British supermarkets have stocked a growing range of prepacked balti meals, and the ''balti'' restaurant sector has since faced increasing competition from the retail sector and from changes in customer tastes, along with other traditional South Asian and Indian restaurants.
See also
*Pakistani cuisine
Pakistani cuisine ( ur, , romanized: ''pākistānī pakwān'') can be characterized by a blend of various regional cooking traditions from South Asia, Central and Western Asia, as well as elements from its Mughal legacy. The country's va ...
*Chicken tikka masala
Chicken tikka masala is a South Asian dish consisting of roasted marinated chicken chunks ( chicken tikka) in a spiced sauce. The sauce is usually creamy and orange-coloured. The dish was popularised by cooks from South Asia living in Great B ...
* Balti wine
References
Further reading
* ''Curry Club Balti Curry Cookbook'', Piatkus
Little, Brown Book Group is a UK publishing company created in 1992, with multiple predecessors. Since 2006 Little, Brown Book Group has been owned by Hachette UK, a subsidiary of Hachette Livre. It was acquired in 2006 from Time Warner of New ...
, London — & (1993)
* ''Modern Balti Curries'', above title republished by John Blake Publishing
John Blake (born 6 November 1948) is an English publisher and former journalist. ''John Blake Publishing'' was acquired by Bonnier Publishing in May 2016. Blake joined ''Soho Friday'', launched in November 2018, a venture with Richard Johnson a ...
, London (2006)
* ''Pat Chapman
Patrick Lawrence Chapman (20 December 1940 – 22 July 2022) was an English food writer, broadcaster and author, best known for founding The Curry Club.
Early days
Chapman was born in London during the Blitz. His grandfather had achieved seni ...
’s Balti Bible'', Hodder & Stoughton
Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint (trade name), imprint of Hachette (publisher), Hachette.
History
Early history
The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs ...
, London — & (1998)
* ''2009 Cobra Good Curry Guide'', John Blake Publishing
John Blake (born 6 November 1948) is an English publisher and former journalist. ''John Blake Publishing'' was acquired by Bonnier Publishing in May 2016. Blake joined ''Soho Friday'', launched in November 2018, a venture with Richard Johnson a ...
, London —
External links
{{Pakistani dishes, state=collapsed
Baltistan
British cuisine
Culture in Birmingham, West Midlands
Curry in the United Kingdom
Indian cuisine
Kashmiri cuisine
Pakistani cuisine
Pakistani cuisine in the United Kingdom