Tony Tobin - Resolve to be different

The move from December into January is quite a shock to the system for most of us. I’m not just talking about the excesses of New Year’s Eve but the transition from a month when spirits are high, purse strings are loose and the appetite is wayward to one where we try to apply the brakes to our runaway consumption of food, drink and finance!

For many people, the first line of defence is a list of New Year’s resolutions. You know, that list of ever-so-well-meant life choices that you have been promising to adopt for the last 20 years: get fit, spend more quality time with the children, go on that GI diet, cut up the credit card, buy less ready meals...

As sensible adults, it’s strange that we still do this after so many years of keeping resolutions going for a few weeks before schlumping back into the same habits that prevailed in December (but with less money). Perhaps that’s why Boots the Chemist has been so successful with their ‘just change one thing’ campaign. Some-one there must have realised that having too many resolutions leads to too much disappointment.

The beginning of the end usually starts when the first family size bar of chocolate sneaks back into the house during the second week of January. This is followed by drinking too much during the first dinner party of the year and falling off the virtual wagon. Finally, as Valentine’s Day draws nigh, that last bastion of the New Year’s resolution list – the expensive gym membership card – is abandoned amid desperate telephone calls to try and stop the direct debit so earnestly set up on January 2.

However your personal downfall normally plays out, I’ve concluded that painful resolutions – particularly those that are based on self-denial, unrealistic diets and even more unrealistic financial constraints – should be avoided at all costs. Instead, I’d like to offer Tony Tobin’s set of enjoyable and, more importantly, do-able resolutions.

Firstly, embrace café culture to keep your spirits up during the darkest month of the year. Naturally, as a chef there is nothing I would like more than for you all to go wild and continue eating out at December levels during January – but I have to be realistic. So, I would advise you to invest in at least one great meal out during the month to keep your spirits up during this darkest time of the year (preferably the day before the seismic December credit card bill comes in!) but otherwise to duck into a good coffee shop where the change in your pocket is still enough to give you a mini-restaurant experience. A latte and panini combo, while taking 15 minutes out to watch the world go by, is good for the soul. At POST in Banstead village, we have completely refurbished our front-of-house coffee shop cum deli with this in mind.

Second, try cooking more meals. You don’t have to obsess about five-a-day or start cutting swathes of ingredients out of your diet. If you set out to actually prepare and cook a meal (rather than sticking one in the microwave), you’ll usually use fresh ingredients and vegetables – and even if there’s a nice fat steak in the middle of it all, it will do you more good than pre-prepared supermarket fayre. Also, cooking lifts the spirits: put some great music on, don your pinny and get behind the pans. You won’t regret it!

Finally, expand your palette. However hard we try, we all tend to get stuck into culinary ruts: meals we cook every week, our favourite dish at our usual restaurant, the things we didn’t eat as a child and still don’t. Make it your resolution to put something new into your mouth during January. Try steaming some romanesco – a beautiful broccoli-esque vegetable that has a gorgeous fresh nutty flavour. Perhaps try serving your family a different type of fish, such as hoki, brill or red mullet. Or, if you really want to go the healthy January route, investigate some of the amazing pulses that you can pick up at most supermarkets: mung beans, flageolet beans, cannellini beans and puy lentils. These can add texture and flavour to your cooking.
So, in short, if you can’t resolve not to resolve then at least resolve to be friends with your stomach and your moods during January. And if you’re stuck, throw the resolutions away and eat out. I’ll look forward to seeing you!

RECIPE...
This month’s Surrey Life reader question comes from Penny Webb, of Reigate, who asked: “After Christmas, I always have lots of blue cheese left over. We buy it for the festive cheeseboard but I tend to end up throwing lots away. Can you suggest a great dish using blue cheese?” My favourite recipe using blue cheese is shown below...

MARINATED FILLETS OF BEEF WITH OVEN DRIED TOMATOES AND GORGONZOLA POLENTA

Ingredients:

1 Beef fillet cut from the centre
(weighing 750-800g)

Marinade
1 Bottle of Bull’s Blood Red Wine
1 Tablespoon of dried Herbs de Provence
2 Shallots finely chopped
½ Clove of garlic, crushed
½ Tablespoon of caster sugar

Polenta
2 Pints of water
200g Quick cook polenta
60g Parmesan cheese grated
100g Gorgonzola cheese, diced

Tomatoes
6 Ripe plum tomatoes
Sea salt
Caster sugar
1 Teaspoon of fresh soft thyme leaves
1 Tablespoon of good balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoons of olive oil

Method:

For the marinade...
Place all ingredients into a pan, bring to the boil then reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the quantity of liquid has reduced by two thirds. Allow to cool completely.

For the beef...
Trim the beef of any excess fat and sinew. Using a pastry brush, brush the beef liberally with the marinade. Wrap in cling film to form a large sausage shape.

For the polenta...
Bring the water to the boil. Add the polenta and stir with a wooden spoon until it thickens and leaves the side of the pan. Remove from the heat and add the parmesan and gorgonzola, spoon into a tray and spread out until 2inches thick. Allow to cool completely.

For the tomatoes...
Set the oven to 100C. Cut the tomatoes in half and place them cut side up onto a roasting tray. Sprinkle with the salt, sugar and thyme leaves and drizzle with the balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Place into the oven for 3-4 hours until semi-dried. Allow them to cool completely before attempting to move them. Once cool transfer to an earthenware dish ready for reheating

Putting it all together...
Keep the oven at 100C. Cut the polenta into 4inch circles using a cutter and fry in a little oil until golden brown on both sides. Keep it warm. Place the tomatoes into the warm oven to heat through. 

Slice the beef into four steaks, heat a griddle pan until smoking, brush the steaks with a little oil and cook on the griddle to your preferred degree. Then allow them to rest in the oven for at least 20 minutes.

Serve on warmed dinner plates placing the polenta into the centre, beef on top and tomatoes around. Drizzle some of the juice from the tomatoes over and around the beef.

 

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