Cooking Under Wraps: The Art of Wrapping Hors D'Oeuvres, Main Courses, and Desserts

Of my 200+ cookbooks, this is my favourite. I've given up on folding page corners over to mark recipes, because most every page got folded over.I would attempt to give it six stars, if there were more photographs, and they were facing their actual recipes, but you can't have everything in life.In the meantime, I'll make do with this book. On one page, she will challenge you to make your own potsticker wrappers, and you really should try to if you want to know what heights potstickers can ascend to, but on the next page, she will feed you sublimely-easy soul-food pierogies.Not a book for a rookie cook, and do not try to make any of the recipes for the first time when guests are arriving shortly, but she details just what parts of a recipe can be made ahead, and exactly how far ahead. Most recipes come with extensive "cook's notes" giving advice and alternate versions of the recipe. Take a practice run at a recipe first, then make it for real and watch your reputation just soar.Even the index works well, unusual in a cookbook.Favourite recipes from this book? There wouldn't be space. Just allow me to quote from the endpapers of the previous edition (which I am passing on as soon as this edition gets to me):"Nicole Routhier shows how the simple pancake can be transformed into a Norwegian lefse, Russian blintz, French crepe, Mexican burrito, Chinese mu-shu."She lets us sample 'Ladies in a Sarong,' peppery little meatballs dressed in Asian flat noodles and dressed again in lettuce leaves, before moving on to coulibiac, a sumptuous salmon pie with Russian roots and a French accent, and then serves up turon, a sweet tropical strudel from the table of the Phillipine merienda. Through it all, we never forget the essential secrets of a velvety brioche, a feathery puff pastry, the flakiest phyllo, and the silkiest of pastas."'Cooking Under Wraps' goes beyond delicious pastry coverings to explore crackling salt crusts, seamy beds of banana leaf, crispy rice-papers, juicy cabbage rolls, an much more."I have just no idea what arc this Vietnamese/French woman could have possibly followed through life to allow her such mastery over so many absolutely distinct cuisines. I can always find picky little problems with a cookbook, like I sometimes have to turn pages while covered in dough, but that would be picayune of me here.I am jealous of her skill, both in cooking, and writing about it.

This book is most excellent! The recipes are very easy to follow, and it was a lot easier than I expected to use.I have have used it on a number of occasions and have recieved raves on the Morrocan Chicken Pie...