Edible Pockets for Every Meal

by Donna Rathmell German

Book Overview

Edible pockets are a wonderful way to enclose food - for appetizers, breakfasts, lunches, picnics, casual suppers and desserts. Edible Pockets for Every Meal has been a nitty gritty(R) best-seller since 1994, bringing together a huge collection of edible pocket recipes from around the world. Whether called dumplings, turnovers, pasties, calzones, empanadas, piroshki, boreks, quesadillas, knishes, pot stickers or samosas, edible pockets are universal...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558672818
• ISBN13: 9781558672819
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Nitty Gritty Cookbooks
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.2" x 5.2"

Customer Reviews

I love the recipes in this collection

Liked it enough to gift it

Much better than I expected

The equipment section at the front of this cookbook has a brief bit of information on using "pocket makers" (also called turnover presses or dumpling presses), pierogi or ravioli makers, and cutting and sealing gadgets. There's a section on "simple pairings" (things you can throw into a pocket dough as a filling without needing a recipe-many leftovers work well). There are yeast dough wrappers, pastry dough wrappers, and "ready-made" wrappers. Fillings include poultry, meat, seafood, cheese, vegetable, herb, and sweet. Each dough section has a detailed list of instructions at the front. Then each actual dough recipe covers ingredients, oven temperature and baking time, and expected yields for different sizes of pockets. This way each recipe can fit on one small page, and a great number of recipes can fit into a relatively short space. The filling recipes are extremely simple. There's a short list of ingredients (most recipes make one to two cups of filling, which actually goes quite far) and usually a brief paragraph of instructions. Then there's a quick list of suggested wrappers for the filling and the pages you'll find them on. The recipes in this cookbook are awfully good. What about a chicken curry filling, or a Moroccan chicken filling? How about an Italian ham filling, Asian pork filling, sausage eggplant filling, or bacon and cheese filling? There are meat pie recipes from various countries, a Chinese orange beef filling, tuna and cheese, crab and cream cheese, crab and cheddar, and ginger shrimp. Or maybe you'd prefer herbed feta and walnut, cheese calzone, three cheese, tomato rice, spicy tomato cheese, mushroom, mushroom and cheese, broccoli cheddar, or similar cheese and vegetable fillings. For a cookbook that's so incredibly simple, and fillings that take so little time to make, this is a delicious resource. The only real problems we noted were some amounts of salt and/or sugar that seemed low, and it's easy to fix those. For those of you on a diet, don't despair too much. Most of these are meant to be baked, not fried. And if you stick with the yeast doughs rather than the pastry doughs, pick your fillings carefully, and do a little judicious substitution of cheeses and reduction of oils, they can be pretty healthy. Besides, by packaging the fillings in such small wrappers, it's easy to make sure you don't eat too much! The ingredients are pretty common and easy-to-find, and until you start playing with the one or two recipes that call for things like crab, they're cheap too. We even found that a good handful of the recipes can be made from the ingredients already found in a well-stocked kitchen and pantry, so you can do some of this stuff on the spur of the moment.

I was amazingly surprised by this book:

I purchased this book as a quick way to make tasty healthy lunches for my husband to take to work. I found many very delicious filling recipes, which I have prepared and enjoyed myself. I also found a wide variety of wrapper recipes as a scrumptious variation for the fillings. It also has a selection of ready-made wrappers that you can purchase in your grocery store. I'm sure you will enjoy this delightful book.

Genuinely Addictive

My copy of this unpretentious little book is rapidly getting dog-eared. If the recipes weren't so very good, my family would surely be dog-tired of pies and turnovers by now, because I can't seem to stop making them! I literally had to start decorating my productions so that we could distinguish the three or four kinds we usually have on hand.The book has two parts, one on wrappers, and one on fillings. Wrappers are further subdivided into yeasted, pastry, and ready-made wrappers. Fillings are split into Savoury, Vegetarian Savoury, and Sweet. I have no sweet tooth whatsoever, so I can't comment on the sweet fillings, but of the fifteen or twenty savoury fillings I've made so far, there has only been one dud.So why only four stars? 1) The section on pastry wrappers could be a little longer, with more instruction on the often-devilish details of pastry-making.2) I like my fillings to have interesting textures. Ms. German seems to prefer puréeing everything.3) She has a tendency to overcook fillings (astonishing comment, coming from a Brit!)4) She has a fondness for frozen vegetables.The last three quibbles are obviously easily rectified by adjusting the recipes to your taste.Highlights: Spicy Asian Chicken, Chinese Orange Beef, Piroshki, and both of the empanada recipes.Ladies and Gentlemen, start your bread machines!

Very useful title

My copy of this unpretentious little book is rapidly getting dog-eared. If the recipes weren't so very good, my family would surely be dog-tired of pies and turnovers by now, because I can't seem to stop making them! I literally had to start decorating my productions with alphabetical pastry cutouts (made with the help of a Play-Doh lettering kit), so that we can distinguish between the three or four kinds we usually have on hand.The book has two parts, one on wrappers, and one on fillings. Wrappers are further subdivided into yeasted, pastry, and ready-made wrappers. Fillings are split into Savoury, Vegetarian Savoury, and Sweet. I have no sweet tooth whatsoever, so I can't comment on the sweet fillings, but of the fifteen or twenty savoury fillings I've made so far, there has only been one dud.So why only four stars? 1) The section on pastry wrappers could be a little longer, with more instruction on the often-devilish details of pastry-making.2) I like my fillings to have interesting textures. Ms. German seems to prefer puréeing everything.3) She has a tendency to overcook fillings (astonishing comment, coming from a Brit!)4) She has a fondness for frozen vegetables.The last three quibbles are obviously easily rectified by adjusting the recipes to your taste.Highlights: Spicy Asian Chicken, Chinese Orange Beef, Piroshki, and both of the empanada recipes.Ladies and Gentlemen, start your bread machines!