"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.

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.

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