Product Description

"Diana Henry's enthusiasm is contagious. In Crazy Water Pickled Lemons, she has conjured up a glorious and magical feast for the senses."
Claudia Roden

"Diana Henry offers a charmingly personal take on exotic foods and dishes which have a touch of magic. Her passion is infectious and her recipes tantalising. Good in bed, and in the kitchen."
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

An inspirational new food title comes in the enchanting form of Crazy Water Pickled Lemons. Diana Henry¹s evocative and beautiful book is an exploration of magical dishes and exotic ingredients which transport us to faraway places and cultures. This is a jewel of a book bursting with ripe figs, sticky dates, scented flower waters, crimson pomegranates and wondrous foods and spices from the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East. The dishes are tantalising - Andalusian Monkfish with Saffron and Honey, Breast of Duck with Persian Pomegranate and Walnut Sauce, Lamb Pilaff with Turkish Sour Cherry Hosaf, Mango Stacks with Labneh and Orange Blossom Syrup, and Amalfitan Stuffed Figs in Chocolate.

Crazy Water is divided up by ingredient - each one distinctive, colourful, aromatic or perfumed - foods that allow us to experience other countries whilst remaining where we are. All the recipes have an enchanting quality, either because of the ingredients used or because of the names and stories attached to them, like Pearldiver's Rice, a honey sweetened rice from Bahrain, so called because its high sugar content was thought to help pearl divers stay under water for longer. Some dishes seem magical simply because they've undergone such an amazing transformation in their cooking that it¹s hard to understand how they work. Consider Middle Eastern Orange Cake, made with pureed whole, cooked oranges, mixed with eggs, sugar and flour and baked to citrussy moistness.

Beautifully written and with a wealth of quotations from poets, novelists and travel writers - from Herodotus and Omar Khayyam to Naguib Mahfouz and Ted Hughes - the book mirrors the current fascination with the food and literature crossover, championed by writers such as Joanne Harris. And like the finest fiction, Crazy Water Pickled Lemons provides an irresistible escape.

To enjoy the book one does not need to be taken to ancient kingdoms or travel to exotic climes ­ the ingredients can be found in supermarkets, in Middle Eastern shops and local markets - but that doesn't diminish their allure. These are ingredients with the power to transport you, and Crazy Water Pickled Lemons tells you exactly what to do with them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #220444 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-15
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Synopsis
This selection of recipes forms an collection of dishes from lesser explored areas of the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East. Divided into 12 chapters based on ingredients, the author introduces the home cook both to unsual indgredients and to unsual ways to cook with old favourites. Each dish is unusual, either because it uses "exotic" ingredients such as flower waters, pomegranates and cardamom, or because of its unusual use of ingredients, such as "Middle Eastern Orange Cake", made almost entirely of pureed whole cooked oranges. Several dishes are unsual simply because of their names, consider "Ice in Heaven", or the "Crazy Water" of the title.

About the Author
Diana Henry began writing about food after the birth of her first child, and now contributes features on food and cookery articles to The Times, House & Garden, Food & Travel, and BBC Good Food Magazine. She spent 12 years as a TV producer, for both the BBC and Channel 4, making human interest documentaries and programmes on the arts and food.

Customer Reviews

'a glorious and magical feast for the senses'
'a glorious and magical feast for the senses' (as Claudia Roden says about this book..) & I really can't say more ~ This is a wonderful book full of inspiration, a myriad feast for the senses, drawing from the rich cultures & flavours of the Mediteranian & Middle East. Just reading through & looking at this book is an evocative experience, which has a much to do with place & culture/experience as it does with flavour & tastes.

A very personal book ~ far more than just a collection of recipes, which conjures up the whole experience of places, tastes, sounds, sights, textures & smells. And reproducing the tastes contained within it's recipes transports you to these places.

A real treasure!

An exploration of the ingredients and dishes of the Mediterranean, The Middle East and North Africa.
'Crazy Waters, Pickled Lemons is an exploration of the ingredients and dishes of the Mediterranean, The Middle East and North Africa, presenting recipes that combine flavours in ways long forgotten - or never even discovered - in many western kitchens.
Special ingredients - the colourful, the aromatic, and the perfumed - which are all too often overlooked in the modern kitchen, are also featured.'

This book stands out from the average cookery book because of the passion, which really flows from the author's descriptions, so the reader can almost see and taste those flavours and ingredients!

'Places, as well as tastes, are locked up in food. The clear perfumed stillness of a bottle of flower water, the sexy, velvety skin of a fig, the sunburnt blood colour of a jar of cayenne. Our love of foods has as much to do with what they represent as with what they taste like.'

'Fennel, Pomegranate and Feta Salad' combines flavours as a great starter, followed by the different, but interesting combination of ingredients in 'Greek Herb Pilaf with Prawns and Feta'.
'Spiced Quinces with Crema Catalana Ice Cream' is a great pud and to wind up... a coffee served with a 'Violet Liqueur Truffle' , a truly wonderful recipe, making a seemingly complicated sweet relatively easy to achieve, in your own kitchen!

Enchanting Dishes from the Middle East, the Mediterranean & North Africa.
'Crazy Waters, Pickled Lemons is an exploration of the ingredients and dishes of the Mediterranean, The Middle East and North Africa, presenting recipes that combine flavours in ways long forgotten - or never even discovered - in many western kitchens.
Special ingredients - the colourful, the aromatic, and the perfumed - which are all too often overlooked in the modern kitchen, are also featured.'

This book stands out from the average cookery book because of the passion, which really flows from the author's descriptions, so the reader can almost see and taste those flavours and ingredients!

'Places, as well as tastes, are locked up in food. The clear perfumed stillness of a bottle of flower water, the sexy, velvety skin of a fig, the sunburnt blood colour of a jar of cayenne. Our love of foods has as much to do with what they represent as with what they taste like.'

'Fennel, Pomegranate and Feta Salad' combines flavours as a great starter, followed by the different, but interesting combination of ingredients in 'Greek Herb Pilaf with Prawns and Feta'.
'Spiced Quinces with Crema Catalana Ice Cream' is a great pud and to wind up... a coffee served with a 'Violet Liqueur Truffle' , a truly wonderful recipe, making a seemingly complicated sweet relatively easy to achieve, in your own kitchen!