00:00The Balty Bowl isn't just for show, it's the essence of the dish.
00:04Thin carbon steel built for speed, holding the heat and the flavor.
00:08These bowls were once made across Birmingham, then production stopped.
00:12Andy Munro, who spent decades documenting the dish,
00:15set out to bring them back.
00:17With the help of local metal workers, he did just that.
00:21The Balty Bowl is at the heart of the Birmingham Balty.
00:25Made in Birmingham, specially designed in the 1970s.
00:28Flat handles, a bit like this.
00:30This is a Balty Bowl made in Birmingham.
00:32Flat handles, flat bottom for stability on the stove.
00:35And it brings with it, if you fast cook a Balty, all sorts of properties.
00:41It caramelizes in a certain way called the Maillard effect.
00:44Michelin chefs die for that.
00:46You get half the fat in a Balty, you get the normal curry because it burns off quickly.
00:50And this lovely caramelization.
00:52So all those things, apart from the fact you also get a lot of iron in it,
00:56which is good for you, you can't overdose on iron.
00:58So that's what makes it so special.
01:02But a bowl means nothing if you don't know how to use it.
01:05At Shababs, Zaf Hussein has been cooking balty's the same way since the 80s.
01:10Fast, fiery hoi flame served straight from the pan it was made in.
01:14This isn't just cooking, it's performance.
01:16And while plenty of places now cut corners, Zaf's stuck to the real method forged here in Sparkbrook.
01:24Yeah, it differentiates us from other BIR restaurants and other British Indian restaurants.
01:30And it gives us the edge because it's almost like they're all doing the same thing.
01:36And it differentiates us and helps us represent Birmingham.
01:39And balty is obviously was born in Birmingham.
01:44And no one else was able to replicate it in other parts of the country or the world.
01:50It's like if you were to go to India or Pakistan, you wouldn't find a balty.
01:54You'd find a lot of karais, but you wouldn't actually find a balty bowl.
01:58And the balty bowl again, even now, it's still manufactured in Birmingham.
02:02You can find something called a balty almost anywhere now, on a supermarket shelf or a chain restaurant menu.
02:09But outside Birmingham, few get close to the real thing.
02:12The dish was made to be fast, cheap and loud.
02:15A working class curry for a working class city.
02:18Stainless steel bowls and slow cooked sauces miss the point.
02:22When balty became sort of famous, probably it was in the 90s.
02:27Everybody wanted to do a balty.
02:28But doing a balty, fast cooking and serving it in the same dish in under 10 minutes over a high flame is not an easy thing to do.
02:36So loads of restaurants will cook, will do a balty.
02:39But it's basically done in a frying pan, bunged in a silver bowl.
02:42And that's not a balty, it's a pseudo balty.
02:45I'd like to think that the Birmingham balty will be developed so that people use all sorts of ingredients.
02:52Because it's pretty traditional ingredients to go in a balty.
02:54But it's a method of cooking, so you can really put what you like in a balty.
02:58without blowing a sword, I'm not going to experience any of these two diamonds, but the idea is the sound of the
03:20interessatic matrix.
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