Review: Cafe Cavallino

Posted by ~RnR~ in $10-$20, Restaurant

2 comments

Cafe Cavallino Review.

Firstly, I want to apologize for the postpone of the posts due to my laptop that broke down a week ago. Now I'm still considering which laptop to get. So please be patient.. :D

Once, I get the new laptop more posts will be up...^^

Okay, let's get to the main point~~

Confuse of choosing so many Italian restaurants along Lygon Street?

Well, I have Cafe Cavallino to be recommended for you. I believe that it is a cafe for Ferrari lovers. :D

It's also a good place to celebrate your friend's birthday as what we did.

Anyway, Happy Belated Birthday to Ms S... ^^

For the appetiser we ordered Pumpkin Soup and Wedges with Chili Sauce and Sour Cream

For the Pumpkin Soup, I did not find anything special with it. It's quite tasty and creamy. Still passable.

Wedges with Chili Sauce and Sour Cream. Well, the wedges is just like any other wedges. Again, nothing much special about this one but it makes a good starter for crumbling stomach. The sweet and sour cream is a bit tasteless though. You need to dip a whole lot of it in order to get the sour taste.

Next,

Bocconcini bread. At first I've mistaken this bread as garlic bread as they look very similar. However, their taste is quite different. This Bocconcini bread is made up of herb bread with Bocconcini Cheese. There is an alluring fragrant from the bread which will make you impatient to try this bread. The cheese is yummy!!! I like it a lot. Also, the bread added the sense of crispiness to the dish. Yum~~

This one? It's called Agnolotti Doriano. Basically, it's a kind of ravioli filled with beef and served with bolognese  sauce and parsley. Overall, it's not bad. However, I didn't find it as tasty after a few bites. I guess it's because of the beef that is inside the agnolotti which I found a bit plain. 

This pizza is named after the cafe, Cavallino. According to the description, this pizza contains sauce, mozzarella cheese, fresh tomatoes, olives, parsley, Proscuitto(Ham), Rucola (roquette salad), shaved parmesan, goat cheese, bruschetta. Quite a long description isn't it? Yea...

I didn't expect the pizza to suit my taste. Surprisingly, this one is delicious.  The crispiness of the base, accompanied with the freshness of the rucola and tomatoes, created a great combination! Don't forget, there is also Ham on the pizza which gives extra indulgence to your mouth.

Do you notice something different with this pizza? Ya! It's a combination of "American" and "Lygon Special". For some of you who loves pizza, American maybe a wise choice to try. Personally, I felt that the highlight of the night is the Lygon Special. Wonderful combination of Ham, Mushroom, Hot salami, mild peppers, pineapple and prawns is ready to shake your mouth with a blazing sensation! So far, in Melbourne, I think this pizza is the best pizza I've ever had. Well, I have not been staying too long here. Probably you can give me suggestion if you don't agree with this. :D

There is spiciness and sourness in the pizza which I love the most. I really feel like eating this pizza again. ><

Actually, we also ordered a cake, which I believed to be a triple chocolate cake. I can't really remember the exact name. The cake was just awesome! There is a plenty of chocolate in it! For a chocoholic like me, I love everything with chocolate... :P

Sorry that I forgot to take the picture of the chocolate cake since it's a birthday cake for Ms  S. :D

Overall:

Price: 8/10

Food: 8.25/10

Service: 7.5/10

Ambience: 7.5/10

Estimated price per person: $ 18

_____________________________________________________________________

181 Lygon St

Carlton VIC 3053

Website: www.cafecavallino.com.au

~Rondoletto~

Recipe: Pork chop with pasta

Posted by ~RnR~ in Cooking Class, Mains

2 comments

Pork chop with pasta

by Celeste

Ingredients:

       Pork chops

       Salt

       Pepper

       Masterfood ™ Steak seasoning

       Olive oil

       Lemon

       Starch

       Pasta of choice (I used canalini for this one)

       Salad

Procedures: 

     1. Cook pasta according to instructions.

     2. While waiting for pasta to cook, season the chops generously with salt, pepper and steak seasoning on both sides. Press to season into the flesh.

     3. For more taste, leave the chops with seasoning for about 20 minutes. Recommended to prepare salad at this time to be served with the pasta.

     4. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add chops, press and leave alone for about 5 minutes to brown. Turn the chops over, press again, and leave for another 2 minutes. 

     5. Squeeze lemon juice around the chops.

        6. Remove chops and place on top of the cooked pasta.

     7. Leave the oil in the pan. Add in some water and starch, mix to preferred thickness of sauce. Add in more steak seasoning and lemon juice.

     8. Pour it over the chops and the pasta.

   9.Serve with salad on the side.

~Rondoletto~

Recipe: French Toast with Honey & Lemon

Posted by ~RnR~ in Cooking Class, Desserts and Snacks

4 comments

French toast with honey & lemon

 by Celeste

The entire process is pretty standardized, as French toast is extremely common. The special part is just the honey and lemon, which gives a very different taste to the toast.

A friend of mine pretty much soaks her toast in honey/syrup. People who love sweet stuff could probably try that. (Something I haven’t done, as I don’t like my food too sweet.)

Ingredients:

-          3 eggs

-          ¼ cup milk

-          1 tsp sugar

-          Honey

-          Pinch salt

-          7 slices bread

-          Lemon

Procedures:

      1. Beat the eggs, add in milk, sugar, 1 tbsp honey and pinch salt. Mix well.

This is not much different from the ordinary French toast, except for the added honey in the mixture. It brings a different taste and also adds crisp to the toast.

     2. Pour oil into pan over medium heat.

     3. Cut bread into half to make triangular slices.

     4. Dip bread into the mixture, make sure all parts of the bread is covered. Put the bread into the oil to fry.

     5. Remove from pan when brown.

     6. Drizzle with more honey and lemon juice to serve. Add butter if desired.

 ~Rondoletto~

Recipe: Swan Choux Pastry

Posted by ~RnR~ in Cooking Class, Desserts and Snacks

3 comments

Swan Choux Pastry

by Lisa

Equipments:

Whisk

Piping bag

Wooden spoon

2 Pots

Baking trays

Oil spray/ greaseproof paper

Spatula

Strainer

Ingredients:

*Choux paste

240 ml water

80 gm butter cubed

160 gm flour

4-5 eggs

*Cream filling (Cream Chantilly)

100 ml thickened cream

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 tbs sugar

few drops of brandy (optional)

Making filling:

Put cream, vanilla essence, sugar in a bowl and whisk until stiff peak

Put in piping bag, put in fridge

Making Choux Paste :

1. Heat up water and butter in a pot, bring to boil

2. Once it’s boiling put the flour at once and stir with wooden spoon, lower the heat

3. Stir continuously until it’s combined well

4. Take off from the stove and continue stirring until cooling down à set aside

5. Beat the eggs, put gradually into the pot ( the paste), pour the egg a little bit by a little bit until it’s mixed well ( stir continuously in fast speed otherwise it will split)

6. Check the consistency, not too runny but not too thick

7. Divide into 2 part ( ¾ and ¼ )

8. For the body : use the ¾ part put in the piping bag with star nozzle

9. For the head : use the ¼ part put in the piping bag with small round nozzle

10. Spray baking tray with oil or put the greaseproof paper to prevent sticking

11. Pipe the choux paste

12. Reheat the oven into 220°C, it must be reheated before to make sure the temperature is high

13. Put in oven at 220°C for 10 minutes, don’t open the oven for the first 10 minutes because it’s very important that the mixture is raising up perfectly, must be double in size. ( it could take more than 10 minutes for raising up, depends on the oven and the temperature, therefore always keep an eye on the oven!)

14. Then, lower the temperature to 170°C and continue baking until it’s golden brown evenly in colour about 5-10 minutes.

15. Take out from the oven, let it rest.

16. Cut the choux pastry as shown below

17. Pipe the Chantilly cream

18. Follow the steps as shown by the pictures below

19. Garnish with icing sugar and it's done!!!

-Rondoletti-

Recipe: Baked Lemon Cheesecake

Posted by ~RnR~ in Cooking Class, Desserts and Snacks

0 comments

Baked Lemon Cheesecake

by Celeste

Ingredients:

           1 pack cream cheese

-          1/3 cup milk

-          2 egg yolks

-          2 tbsp lemon juice

-          1 tbsp lemon zest

-          1/3 tsp vanilla essence

-          1/3 cup white sugar

-          3 tbsp self-raising flour

-          1 ½ tsp corn starch

-          2 egg whites

-          1/3 tsp cream of tartar

Procedures:

      1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.

     2.Warm the cream cheese and milk in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Set  aside.

     3. Beat egg yolks with half the sugar. Add in lemon juice, zest and vanilla essence.

     4. Fold the cream cheese into the yolk mixture.

     5. Sift in flour and corn starch. Stir until blended.

    6. In another bowl, whip the egg whites with cream of tartar. Sprinkle in the rest of the sugar.

     7. Fold the egg white mixture into the cream cheese.

     8. Pour the blended mixture into a baking tin.

     9. Pour water in the baking sheet until half full.

    10. Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 150 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes.

Sorry the picture doesn’t look very appealing! Was a little in a hurry to get the cake done before the potluck started! Could have done some garnishing.

I personally prefer to have the cake warm, when it first comes out of the oven. I’ve found out that most people like it chilled though.

~Rondoletto~

Recipe: Cantonese Beef Fried Rice Noodles (Hor Fun)

Posted by ~RnR~ in Cooking Class, Mains

2 comments

Cantonese Beef Fried Rice Noodles (Hor Fun) 

 by Chef Jo

Ingredients:

Sliced Beef

Garlic

Chives

Spring Onions

Ginger

Bean Sprout

Rice Noodles (Hor Fun)

Preparation:

 1.     Marinate the Sliced Beef with Dark Soya Sauce, Soya Sauce, Sesame Oil and Chinese Wine.

 2.    Chop the garlic. Slice the spring onions, chives and ginger. 

 3.    When you first bought the rice noodle in a packet, all of them are  overlapping each other. Therefore, you will need to separate them as shown in the picture. Patience is required for this step.

Cooking:

1.     Heat the frying pan with oil.

2.    Stir fry the marinated beef first then remove it from the pan.

3.    Clean the frying pan and heat with oil again.

4.    Add in the garlic, chives, ginger and spring onion. Stir fry them until the spring onions are soften.

5.    Add in the rice noodles and spread the dark soya sauce over them.

6.    Keep frying and you will notice the importance of step 3 in preparation which required you to separate the rice noodle so that they won’t stick to each other.

7.    When the rice noodles are soften and turned slightly transparent, you are allowed to add in the pre-fried marinated beef.

8.    Add in the bean sprout and continue frying.

9.    Finally, its done!

  

I'm sorry that I don't have pictures for all the steps. :(

~Rondoletto~