Customer Reviews

Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book straightaway after thumbing through it. It is what some modern foodies would call pure food porn: there are gorgeous pictures and stories to go with the recipes. One thing I particularly like is that Ms. Henry includes recipes for the condiments such as for preserved lemons and harissa. These items simply aren't available where I live, but I can make them myself for use in the recipes. She also offers reasonable alternatives for many hard-to-find items such as apples or pears for quinces and grape juice/balsamic vinegar mix for grape saba. As another reviewer said, it is not organized in military fashion, but I read cookbooks for fun, so that is no nevermind to me. The comments on the "odd" typeface elude me--I find nothing wrong with it,as it seems no different from other modern cookbook formats. This is a fun overview cookbook for mediterranean cooking that is a good place for new cooks to start exploring these food genres. For the experienced cook it is a fun read and has some off the beaten track recipes.

As a former culinary instructor and chef, I found this book amazing. Not laid out in the traditional fashion, the author takes each chapter to feature one or two ingredients from Middle East cookery, then describes them so beautifully. The information given at the beginning of each chapter is as delicious as the recipes!

I have had this book for years and have made several recipes from it. Yes, some of them are a bit involved, but for a special meal, they make the whole experience of creating the dish special.

This is the most beautiful cookbook! It was given to me as a gift and i have cooked about half the dishes in it. I have never ever tried a dish without being blown away by how amazing the flavours are. No matter how strange the combination of ingredients may sound, everytime it is superb (the rosemary lemon cake is to die for). The way it is arranged by ingredients as opposed to "salads" "main course" etc. is what makes this such a delightful book. There are millions of books out there that are divided like that-if that is what you are after then get an A-Z of cooking. Instead, Henry divides into groups, sweet, citrus, fruits of longing (fig, pomegranate and all the exotic like) and has recipes that revolve around this theme. This encourages you to think about how to use ingredients in both sweet and savoury ways. It is for the cook who is interested in trying something a little different, however all the recipes are easy enough for anyone who has a reasonable understanding of cooking.I prefer cookbooks that involve you in all aspects as opposed to how to cook something in 10 minutes. Crazy water pickled lemon does just that, with beautiful introductions explaining how the recipes made it into the book. A fantastic buy for the cook who wants to create beautiful dishes.

An exciting cook book. It invites you not only to try new recipes, spices and ingredients, but also to use your imagination and create new meals. Fun

This is a beautiful book. I am happy with most of the recipes. However, there is a lot of meat and sauce drenched fish recipes which I'm not a fan of. If you are then, I think it's a perfect book for you. The vegetable and rice dishes are great. So over all I think it's a well rounded book. Not amazing, but good.

Not too much I want to say about this book - it is a transport of delight. I especially like reading it on dim winter days. I like to take my time deciding what beautifully poetic recipe I want to get to know.

I have tried several recipes from this book, and they all turned out great, so I have every intention of trying them all. The book focuses on ingredients that are slightly off the beaten trail for Western cooking, highlighting things like rose water and orange blossom water, quinces, preserved lemons, etc, and so they have kind of an mediterranean flavour. What this means is that the finished dish will taste very good, and each bite will have several nuances, while not being heavy. The only trouble I had was finding the somewhat exotic ingredients, but it turned out I could find most of them, some in the supermarket in aisles I hadn't gotten in before, others in health stores and the like. I put this up there with Ottolenghi as two of the best cookbooks I own.

This is one of the best cookbooks I've picked up in years! The writing is delightful. The recipes - so far - are easy to understand and straight-forward to prepare. Delectable is a word I would choose to describe the recipes we've tried so far. A very different collection of recipes that use (mostly) every-day ingredients to create magical flavors. I am now a fan of Pickled Lemons -- the condiment and the cookbook.

What a bunch of nonsense, Hostile Reviewer.

This is a beautifully written book with thoughtful, interesting recipes sure to tantalize and delight fellow epicurians. It's easy to follow, the instructions are clear and concise, and the ingredient lists read like a tale from Arabian Nights. I can't see how anyone could complain about this gorgeous book- unless they like the big glaring fonts of a McDonald's menuboard and call the Olive Garden "exotic".