BALTI CUISINE is the name for a style of cooking made famous in Birmingham, England. It is a subset of Indian Food that has it’s origins in the little known region of Baluchistan, in the upper reaches of Pakistan and Indian Kashmir. Experts have traced it’s history and found the ancient silk route bought the “Balti” utensil (bucket) from China to Baluchistan, the region near Karakoram Pass. By the time it reached Punjab, the “Balti” transformed to the more convenient “Kadhai” (similar to a wok).
Balti is very similar to stir fry – assembled and cooked quickly in a “kadhai”, a semi hemispherical pot of steel, iron or copper. Traditionally, this is used to cook and serve in as well. Balti curries are less spicy with gentler flavours achieved by the shorter period of cooking. Balti curries are semi-dry; they do not have the commonly found liquid gravy of other North Indian curries.
At Arya, our chefs believe that it is the grinding process that releases aromatic oils from spices and these oils create the delicious flavours in Balti.
