TOMATOES AND SPICE
Cooked tomato versus fresh tomato is a real consideration when it comes to flavour and masala. When you change the form of any produce, you change its taste. Heating and removing the skin of tomato makes it more complex, warmer, less acidic, and more aromatically dense. This in turn means that, when added to spice, it will generate texture, heat and complexity in the spice blend. Fresh tomato is lighter, colder, more acidic and disruptive to heavier flavours. It works in some ways as an acid - splitting weight and de-complicating (if that’s a word) some of the more nuanced and deeper spice notes.
HOW TO USE TOMATO:
I use fresh chopped tomato in fried eggs, or in heavier spiced dishes when I want a fresher end finish and a higher, more acidic note.
Parboiled skinned tomato brings depth and complexity to paneer, it reinforced the richness of slow meaty winter cooks, and creates a deeper base for dried spice and fats in a pan.
Parboiled and skinned tomato is ideal with coconut milk and coconut cream - the two together are sweetness and softness personified.
Chilli with fresh tomato will be hotter, higher and lighter than chilli used with parboiled and skinned tomato.
Fresh tomato enlivens and sweetens earth spices like cumin seed and fennel seed, while parboiled and skinned tomato draws forward their latent warmth and forward earthy qualities.