Customer Reviews

A World of Dumplings: Filled Dumplings, Pockets and Little Pies from Around the Globe

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Brian Yarvin's title A World of Dumplings might conjure up images of chicken and dumplings for some, or soup for others, but it's about a much wider range of foods than that. He uses the word to refer to nearly any form of filled dough treat, savory or sweet, whether baked, fried, steamed, poached, or boiled.

A brief introduction provides some tips and hints and introduces you to the wide range of treats waiting for you in the pages to come. The first major section offers up recipes from Asian countries, including Japan (mmmm, Gyoza!), Korea (Mandu!), China (everything from Wontons to Shanghai-Style Soup Dumplings), Vietnam (Spring Rolls), Thailand, and India (Samosas!). The recipes I mentioned by name are only a sampling of what's on offer, and the book also includes recipes for the wrappers as well as a handful of dipping sauces. Each regional section also includes interesting notes on how or why a particular type of dumpling is made the way it is.

Dumplings are presented from Central Asia and the Middle East, including an exquisite recipe for sweet walnut fritters that I couldn't get enough of, as well as simple and delicious chickpea pies. There are dumplings from Russia and Eastern Europe, Western Europe (primarily Italy), and the Americas.

The flavors in these recipes are uniformly delightful, and the photos definitely help the cook to figure out how to assemble these wonderful tidbits. However, the directions did occasionally confuse me a bit. Take, for instance, the Samsa, or Sweet Walnut Fritters. The dough gets rolled out into a sheet that is 12 x 24 inches. The directions say to cut the dough into six-inch squares, and the recipe says it makes 20 of the dumplings. The closest I could come was three-inch squares, which made 18. That certainly worked well enough, but this kind of confusion definitely makes the book a little harder to use in places.

I do highly recommend the use of a pasta machine with those recipes that specify it. The author notes in his introduction that it makes life a lot easier, and I must concur with that. We were certainly able to make a recipe without the specified machine, but it would have been much easier with it.

If you're a dumpling fiend as I am, I highly recommend this cookbook. The results are delicious, there's a huge range of delightful recipes to choose from of all kinds, the photos walk you through the difficult steps, and even the rough spots in the directions are minimal.

`A World of Dumplings' by Brian Yarvin is exactly the kind of passionate treatment of a specialized culinary subject we like to find from `little presses' like `The Countryman Press' up to and including former upstart (and now giant) 10 Speed Press. Yarvin is neither a chef like Rick Bayless nor an established culinary journalist or writer such as Paula Wolfert or Claudia Roden. But Yarvin has what appears to be a consuming interest and passion for his subject which has produced a book which is at the top of its class as a survey of dumpling recipes.
The very first thing Yarvin does right is that he covers the whole world, as promised, but touches of few if any types of food which are NOT easily recognized as dumplings.
My very first interest was to see how he would approach that very special Pennsylvania Dutch contribution to world dumplings, the baked apple dumpling. As it happens, Yarvin lives and works just across the Delaware from Dumpling Central, in western New Jersey, so he was in an excellent position to do lots of first hand research, and that is exactly what he did. As a very amateur student of this dish, I have tried several different recipes from PA Dutch cookbooks, and I have eaten many a sample at local restaurants and fairs. And, I can attest that Yarvin has captured this dish in all its sweet and spicy and doughy glory. This is NOT diet food, kiddies, and Yarvin has applied the sugar, lard, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg at all the right places. Even better, he has not assumed, as many of these PA Dutch cookbooks do, that you know the basics of preparing dough. His recipe is more detailed than anything I have seen coming out of Lancaster County from Best Books!
My second check on Yarvin's recipes was to compare his Steamed Chinese Pork Dumplings (shu mai) to a recipe by an oriental culinary specialist, Ellen Leong Blonder in `Dim Sum, The Art of Chinese Tea Lunch' and I found again that Yarvin again gives us a recipe which is as good or better than one available from specialists in the area.
My third check was to compare his empanada recipe to Rick Bayless' recipe in his authoritative `Authentic Mexican' book and also to the equally authoritative Diane Kennedy's `The Essential Cuisines of Mexico'. Here, I found a somewhat puzzling result. Bayless and Kennedy give two different recipes for the empanada wrapper, with Bayless using only wheat flour and Kennedy using only masa (corn flour). The simple explanation is that Bayless is describing Empanadas de Picadillo from northern Mexico and Kennedy is describing Empanadas de Requeson from southern Mexico. Yarvin splits the difference with his single recipe and creates a wrapper with about ¾ wheat flour and ¼ corn flour. So, Yarvin is not giving us ethnically precise empanadas; however, just like his apple dumpling recipe and his shu mai recipe, his empanada recipe is as detailed and illuminating (or better) than any of the ethnic sources. And, Yarvin gives us five different recipes for fillings using the one `universal' empanada wrapper recipe.
The story of empanadas is repeated for virtually all of the world's varieties of dumplings, from Italian raviolis to Polish Pierogis to Russian Varenicki to Indian Samosas. Every major dumpling genre has its variations which change from region to region and, if you are to believe many writers, from household to household, with everyone believing theirs are the best.
Yarvin adds to his recipes some great stories describing his search for some of these recipes, plus some very nice condiments, such as the dipping sauces for the Chinese dim sum dumplings and pasta sauces for the Italian galaxy of filled pastas and onion marmalade condiments for the eastern European dumplings.
Very few books of this type have ever disappointed me, and this one is better than most. If your interest is exclusively in dumplings from Italy or Mexico or the Ukraine or China, this book may not be the most authentic source, but if you are a foodie omnivore and relish the notion of experimenting with all sorts of dumplings, Yarvin is your man. Of course, if you are in love with Dutch apple dumplings, the recipe for that dessert may be worth the price of the book.

The author gives great recipes, which one would hope for, or expect. What makes this book so interesting is that he also includes offbeat, fun, sometimes funnier than you would ever expect, stories about his adventures in putting the recipes and the book together. From a Polish dumpling shop, to posting a flyer seeking help with simosas, to two elderly peopling fighing in a diner, I was laughing, smiling, AND learning.

First off the directions and pictures are amazing. Could not ask for better directions at all. There is also great advice about the basics and what you need. Those alone are worth having this book.

My biggest complaint about this book would be I wish there was more recipes for fillings. ESPECIALLY the less commonly known "dumplings". This is not just a "cookbook" the author has added a lot of background or stories as well. This IMO is a fun read and well written BUT kinda of takes away from my desire for more filling recipes. For Example the Samosa section- starts with the wrapper recipe and how to make, fill, form and cook a samosa (most wrappers have this GREAT INTRO and direction)... then there is a 4 page log of the author searching for a good samosa recipe. Followed is 2 recipes for samosa fillings (spicy vegatarian and ground lamb) ANOTHER page of story telling and ending with a recipe for Samosa Chaat- which pretty much a topping for samosas. There are some dumplings that have only scored one filling recipe like Japanese fried dumplings and Thai dumplings (which scored 2 sauce recipes?!?). Then to the other Extreme, the kind of "dumplings" anyone can find recipes very easily for, Raviolis and Tortellinis scored 10 filling recipes between the 2 of them! Plus a couple more recipes from Italy. The reason why I didnt like this is because many of these regional recipes call for special seasonings or oils I needed to go out and purchase. I am discouraged to try some if I need to buy a special ingredients needed for only 1 or 2 recipes. This is especially true if most regions call for a basic core season base. To be fair I am not the type of person that keeps 5 different kind of cooking oils on hand (off the top of my head I know that Lard, sesame, corn and peanut oils are needed for some of the different recipes.) And I have a small collection of "international" seasonings.
In this 276+ page book you will find about 120 recipes. Of these recipes there are 23 recipes are just for the various wrappers, pockets or dumplings needed for other recipes. Then throw in a handful of sauce recipes, a handful of sidedish recipes and a couple of soups and the actual recipes of your fillings keep dwindling. Now add the fact that this is broken up into 23 countries and Italy seems to have scored a large amount of filling recipes (I can buy books of just raviolis no problem ) and you start so see how "light" some dumplings must be for filling variantions.

Okay, a disclosure: I am a distant cousin of the author. That said, I love to cook and would be attracted to this book as a foodie and photo junky in any case. The book doesn't disappoint. The photos are both lovely and useful; they let you get the hang of making wrappers from all cultures, baked, steamed, and fried.

I started with the mild lamb Cornish pasties for my niece's rooftop wedding party. The recipe worked just as described. A British meal-in-hand, the pasties went well with beer and wine and made a big hit with everybody. I then made the shrimp Chinese dumplings to learn about steaming in bamboo. Fascinating to find myself making a big rope of dough. A big hit at home.

The book is full of tips, and a good read. Did you know how useful parchment paper is? How to pinch together an Asian dumpling wrap? How to line your bamboo steamer? (with Chinese cabbage). As a cookbook, it is for the adventurous. As a photo work, it gives you the inside story about an important element of food culture and would do just fine on the coffee table.

This is a very interesting book with excellent photographs throughout. I have already made the Meat Piroshki from Russia, Cabbage and Mushroom Pirogi from Poland, "Fast and Naked" Gnudi con Zucca from Italy and the Little Ear Dumplings in Borscht from Russia. All were very tasty. The recipes cover specialties from many countries in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern and Western Europe and the Americas. Why 4 stars instead of 5? I was disappointed not to find any dumplings to drop on top of stews or fruit, no drop dumplings for soups and the one recipe from Canada (from Quebec which is where I live) is not one that I or my friends have ever heard of. Maple syrup dumplings would have been really typical but alas, there is no recipe for them. Still, this book is certainly worth having for what it does contain.

This is a great collection of all things dumplings, the definition might be a little loose for some, but that gives you an in to some tasty dishes you might not have tried. Just be warned a few sunday afternoons might be lost to making dumplings after buying this book :)

"A World of Dumplings" is an exceptional cookbook. At 288 pp., it has many recipes, backed up with photos of the finished products and photos to illustrate some of the steps in making various dumplings. It is printed on very good paper, to get high quality photos. The recipes are clear and well-explained. The author, Brian Yarvin, deserves a round of applause for his efforts and for his good humor in showing the spread of filled dumplings from asia throughout the world and in showing the wide variety of steamed, boiled, fried,and baked versions of dumplings. We are not talking of some dough, perhaps mixed with various additions, that is then cooked. We are talking about filled dumplings that can be exotic or plain, but always are, at least, a step above the simpler, non-filled, dumplings.

Dumplings are a staple of many ethnic cusines and I strongly recommend this book.

This product was described well, arrived when expected, and was greatly enjoyed by my boyfriend who is a chef. He says there are also many great dipping sauce recipes in this book.

Avery comrehensive production covering a selection of dumplings beyond most food lovers knowledge and experience. Thoughtfully put together in an easy-reading, friendly style