Hereford Sirloin Steak from Heggies of Hereford

I was incredibly pleased when I was offered the chance to review some beef from Heggies of Hereford.  Heggies first opened its doors in 1956 by Charles Heggie and has grown ever since; based in the rural city of Hereford they are able to source our products from some of the very best suppliers in the county of Herefordshire.
From the lush green pastures to the welsh borders  Heggies has been providing the finest quality meats for over 50 years  taking extra  special care when choosing their suppliers so that traceability from farm to table can be assured


Although I received three different cuts of beef, I have only had the chance to cook one of them.  I seized upon the sirloin steaks last weekend, and as you can see it is labelled with all the details of the provenance of beef including the name of the farmer.


Look at the beautiful marbling through the meat and the creamy white fat, both signs of great flavour.

Usually I would cover my steak with crushed black pepper, but I wanted the flavour of the meat to really come through, so I used just a little of the Sel de Camargue I brought back from Provence in the spring.  Sel de Camargue contains sea salt, black pepper, pink pepper and coriander.

I crushed a couple of teaspoons of the Sel de Camargue in a mortar and pestle, covered the steaks with a little olive oil and rubbed on the salt and pepper mix.  I then left it to marinade for about four hours, three in the fridge and the last hour out of the fridge so the meat was at room temperature when it ws cooked.
I grilled the steaks, but you could fry them if you prefer or cook on the barbeque.  We like our steak a little bit pink and the steaks cooked pretty quickly. 

The verdict?  Oh my goodness, probably the best steak I've ever tasted, there was nothing chewy about this piece of meat as there often is with sirloin, it was easy to eat and was full of flavour.  I'm not a huge fan of fat but grilled crisp, as it was, I ate the whole lot, it was just so good.

Two 12oz Sirloin Steaks can be bought online from Heggies of Hereford for £17.00.  Although that does seem expensive, I would have to say that is is completely worth it.  If you wanted to be a bit more frugal, you could slice the steaks after cooking and make them stretch to four people.

Many thanks to James Heggie and Tariq Mohammed for the opportunity to review these steaks.  I was not paid for this review and all opinions are my own.

Labels: Heggies of Hereford, Hereford, Sel de Camargue, Sirloin Steak

posted by Janice @ 22:26 4 Comments

Foodie Haul from France

We didn't have much space in our cases to bring back many foodie items, next time I'm taking a bigger case!  However here are the things I managed to squeeze in and fortunately not a single glass bottle or jar was broken in transit.

The two tins on the left contain Herbes de Provence and Sel de Camargue aux 3 poivres (salt from the Camargue region with three kinds of pepper).  I love the tins as well as their contents.  Next is the Truffle Oil Spray not quite sure how I'm going to use this yet, any suggestions very welcome. 

The two small bottles are miniatures of Poire William Eau de Vie (alcohol flavoured with pear) and a Chestnut liqueur, the large bottle is Framboise (Raspberry) liqueur which is divine and really tastes of fresh raspberries. It makes a great Raspberry Kir when served with chilled dry white wine.


There is a jar of Dijon Mustard bought in the cheese shop in Beaune which I showed you in the last photos, and there is a bag of culinary lavender which I'm looking forward to using.

In front of the bottles is some nougat and a bag of Praline de Lyon which is an almond praline made with coloured sugar, I'm hoping to use that to recreate some of the baking decorated with the praline that I saw in the markets and patisseries in Lyon.


Last but not least, I bought a lovely provencal style tablecloth which will be featuring in my photographs for some time before we actually get to use it on the table!

Labels: Chestnut Liqueur, Dijon Mustard, Food, France, French, Herbes de Provence, Poire William, Praline de Lyon, Sel de Camargue, Truffle oil

posted by Janice @ 21:31 9 Comments