A weekend of Events in Melbourne.

Melbourne has been busy this weekend with the annual "Around the Bay in a Day" cycle sportif event. With approximately 10,000 riders covering 200 plus kilometers, the riders contribute towards the Smith Family fundraising.
For the Professional Racing cyclists, the Jayco Herald Sun Tour travelled around Victoria ending in Melbourne today.
While all this pedal action was going on, Phillip Island was hosting the Motorcycle GP. Melbourne also hosted the Caulfield Cup, second only in prestige to the Melbourne Cup horse race to be held in November.


The Jayco Herald Sun 5 stage Tour.



Casey Stoner wins his 5th Australian Motorcycle GP and his second World Title.

The Caulfield Cup starts the Melbourne Spring Carnival Racing for 2011.

As for me - I slept in on Sunday and then Sue and I drove down to Mordialloc for breakfast. We've blogged about Mordy in the past.
It's two suburbs down the road from us and its creek flows out into the bay. Can't say that I really missed not being out on the bike or mixing with the crowds at one of the many special events in Melbourne this weekend. It was pleasant to relax and take in the atmosphere of Mordy village. The area has developed greatly in our time. Many cafes, restaurants and specialty shops give the main drag a really good feel.

Not that long ago, Sue received a book in the mail - naturally a cook book.
Titled "French Brasserie cookbook" by Daniel Galmiche, it was the inspiration of Saturday night's meal but I'll let Sue tell you more.

This book was recommended to me by someone whose opinion I respect so I wasted no time in ordering it.

I have made a couple of things from it to date and have been happy with them.

This dish was roasted monkfish fillet with saffron scented mussel and clam ragout.

I buy my saffron online and it's always much fresher and more aromatic than the stuff I can buy in shops here. Supermarkets anyway.

My fish monger had these clams. They are from New Zealand and farmed and already cooked. I have only bought fresh before, but as none were around, I thought it worth giving these a go. They were OK, but I would always prefer cooking any shellfish from raw.

No monkfish here. This is some of the hapuka I had leftover from last week. I bought a whole side as it looked so good, and I froze what I didn't use. It didn't seem to affect either the flavour or texture.

Lime zest and chives. The lime is from our tree which always overflows at this time of year. It is a Tahitian lime, on which the skin goes yellow as the fruit ripens. Same flavour as the green. It has limes on it for most of the year. (Unlike my poor sad lemon tree in a pot which had ONE sad lemon on it last year. )

The finished dish, served on steamed rice with a little asparagus. A very nice dish.

With the house to ourselves we decided to catch up on the more modern version of "Lion in Winter" after dinner.  A few weeks ago we saw the original version with Catherine Hepburn. Glenn Close had the starring role of Eleanor of Aquitaine in this more recent version. I felt that Close's acting matched that of Hepburn. Both versions mirrored each other quite well and it was interesting to see how the various actors portrayed their roles.

But you be the judge of which was best - here's a comparison of the same scene from both versions.

With all these events happening in Melbourne at the moment,

we might just have to get out more often.