Oh yeah Paul - not saying they're not.

It's just that I never use much oil in my curries, and I was concerned that fresh toms, which tend to include less water wouldn't work in a drier frying pan.

Imagine the same with the onions - it just doesn't work if you try and take away too much of the oil.

I like moves heavy on the tomatoes like a Rogan Josh so it makes a big difference here I think.

Tried searching but could only find this issue mentioned in dribs and drabs within threads.

Until a few weeks ago I had always just used tinned chopped toms in my recipes, however last week I took the opportunity to knock up two identical curries (by chance using my own recipe which is very similar to Admin's - http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1894.msg16359#msg16359)

Anyway, the main difference is that I reduce the onions down more and don't liquidise them as I like a rougher textured curry.

I used tinned in one pan and diced fresh tomatoes in the other. I wish I could show you a picture, but the bottom line was that the tinned dish looked really artificial compared to the fresh one.

Myself and a small group of friends sampled both, and I think the split was around 60/40 in terms of the tinned dish. However, I strongly disagree with this, and I actually much preferred the dish using the fresh ingredient.

I guess it's just down to opinions, so that's why I'm posting on here. Do you swear by either? Do you avoid dishes with either tinned or fresh toms? What works best - very ripe, or harder fruits?

I suppose half my problem is that I like to make healthy curries, which goes against the grain of what BIR ones tend to be. I won't use ghee or start throwing in a mug of vegetable oil so frying up things like toms tends to be difficult. I know many of you decry this but I'm not searching for the perfect curry - more the perfect curry that's far healthier than my local!