Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Glad to hear you're okay! I've been without power/internet/mobile for three days before and it wasn't fun but fortunately I still had tapwater. That must have been difficult! Hopefully everyone else is safe and sound.

The only thing we don't have is internet. Sadly, my nice clean car is trashed from leaky sandbags, but apart from that, all is OK!

Sorry to hear about your car Matt but I'm glad to hear you're otherwise okay!

Just wondering what you guys use when a recipe calls for 'tomato sauce'? Generally I'll use passata but I'm not sure whether that'll work in a scone recipe (the Tomato Rosemary Scones from Vegan Brunch). Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

I always just use tomato puree in recipes that call for tomato sauce and that seems to work out fine

Thanks Zinnifer. I don't think I've seen tomato puree before, I'll have to keep an eye out next time I'm at Woolworths. :-)

yeah, i think american recipes calling for tomato sauce are asking for what we call "tomato paste".

oh no matt! stinky flood-wrecked cars are the worst :(

Yep, passata is right. I've used it in those scones a bunch of times and they're always great.

Me too, if it's a US recipe, those long-neck bottles of passata do the trick.

I came across this job and thought I'd post it here in case anyone would be interested or knows someone who would be good for it, Senior Fundraiser for SAFE NZ: http://www.ethicaljobs.com.au/Members/d ... ew-zealand

Thanks for the responses! I did manage to find some 'tomato puree' in Woolworths but given that you've had success using passata in the scone recipe Erin, I'll use that too and reserve the tomato puree for the Snobby Joes recipe that I'm going to cook this week. Speaking of which, what do you guys generally serve Snobby Joes with? If you put them on buns, are you able to eat them with your hands or are they too messy? Haha, I'm really showing my ignorance of American cuisine here!

I second passata - though if it sounds like it has herbs, I sometimes use the non chunky dolmios or whatever things. I think tomato puree is all passata is - milled tomatoes.

I'm not sure how many of you have been to Urbane Restaurant in Bris - the ex-chef Kym Machin is amazing at vegan degustation and vegan meals... He moved on, and now the Exec Chef Alejandro Cancino is here, and making awesome vegan food. He's also vegan at home. Definitely worth attending - we did a review here - if you're nearby, book in for the April Vegan Dinner! http://www.jamesandmatt.com.au/2013/02/ ... rbane.html

My best friend Mark has been a soapmaker for quite a while now, and although he hasn't officially opened his online shop yet, he's been selling a lot by word of mouth. It's all natural, handcrafted, small batch and vegan. I know I'm biased, because he's my best buddy, but honestly, I've been buying CP soap for years now (because I only use natural products) and his soaps are the best I've ever used. The lather is incredibly rich, and he only uses natural fragrance and colour too (I'm allergic to a lot of artificial additives). I've got super-sensitive skin and none of his soaps dry my skin out or irritate it - I'm his most devoted guinea pig. Anyway, if you're in the market for some super deluxe soap, you can find him on FB. http://www.facebook.com/ScarletFez

I am so keen to try these soaps, Karena! I have really sensitive skin, too, and I tend to only use organic castile soap, but I have been buying some bars from a lady who has a stall at our local shopping centre once a every couple of months. I have spoken to her about the animal ingredients, but I do think the bars dry my skin out.

Let me know when his store is open, ta!

Karena, I recently stocked up on shower gel from Lush but once that's gone, I'd love to try Mark's soap. I haven't managed to find a skin-friendly bar of soap yet but hopefully Mark's will be the answer. :-)

Kitteh, I love your blog! :-) I'm heading to Sydney next month, so I appreciate the list of vegan-friendly restaurants. I don't suppose you know whether Naked Espresso still exists? It appears that Basil Pizza has new owners and I'm not sure whether they've continued doing weekend breakfasts. Hopefully they are because I loved that place!

I'll definitely keep you posted Kitteh & LittleC! I forgot to mention, he never uses palm oil either, which is very commonly used in CP soap. His soap's all olive oil based, enriched with other oils and butters. :)

Karena - olive oil soap sounds lovely. I did a search for some soap making kits online and they suggest using olive, too. But I think I'd buy the kit and then never get around to actually making the soap ;)


Thanks, LittleChicken! Sorry, I have completely neglected my food blog and need to up date that list. The original owners of Naked Espresso now run a cafe called Apt, inside a book shop - it's lovely.

Let us know if you'd like to meet up with some of us, I am sure Dross would be up for a meet up and a couple of non-ppkers, too :)

I went to Apt on the weekend, it's always good! I'm going to be making a super quick trip over next month as well (driving over on Thursday night, getting tattooed on Friday morning and then straight back to Canberra) but I've booked a place to stay like a block away from there so I can at least fit in one decent meal.

We also went to Yulli's on Crown Street for dinner on Saturday night and it was really good. I'll definitely go back there. None of the desserts were vegan, which was a shame, but the whole specials menu and about half of the regular menu was. Delicious and it felt super fancy (compared to Canberra, anyway)!

I just saw the menu for Chicago Diner. That's it, I'm moving to the US. My belly demands it.

Also, hi.

Hey Australia! A question for you fine folks down under:

You know how a good meringue is sort of like the Higgs Boson of vegan baking? Oft theorized but you'll only get a glimpse of one in perfect laboratory conditions? This evening we made a solid attempt at a good pie meringue using a recipe from an Australian blog. The key ingredient was egg replacer. The result was a terribly viscous beast that my roommate could only refer to as a "terrible custard monster". It left us wondering, perhaps you folks have different sorts of ingredients in your standard supermarket egg replacer? We tried both Bob's Red Mills (soy flour and gluten based) and PaneRiso (corn starch based) to ill effect. Do you have any ancient Australian wisdom?

Our egg replacer is Orgran No Egg. I've been meaning to try meringues or pavlova since I saw Bryanna Clark Grogan's success with it, but I've never gotten around to it. Soon! I never even liked meringue that much, but it's the principle of the thing.

Also, Sydney was not kind to me, vegan-wise, last week. Apt was closed, Silverbean was closed, I walked all the way to Vina on Thursday night and there were no free tables (and I wasn't going to stand around and wait for one when I was all alone anyway), and I went to the Cruelty Free Shop to get a new Matt and Nat handbag and they were sold out. I had to like, keep my money and stuff. Boring. Also I ended up so hungry after my tattoo appointment that I almost had a total mental collapse and cried in Ikea from a combination of being sore, starving and not being able to reach things with a giant swollen arm. I was quite the spectacle.

pavlova is ok, but i couldn't be bothered trying to replicate one without eggs, it just seems impossible. let us know if anyone does it, i would be heartily impressed.

Closing this thread so you can fill out this nice new forum you have! Enjoy!

If there are any more Australia or New Zealand threads, please report them so I can move them here!