Tasty Tuesday: What’s Cookin’ With Princeton University Press

Cooked Books:

Recipes from the Staff of Princeton University Press

includes eighty-two recipes contributed by current and former members of the Princeton University Press staff. In 115 pages, it draws on the best culinary inspiration of our extended publishing community, their families, and their friends.

We marry the cultures of cooking and publishing a level deeper by tying the names of many of our favorite dishes to titles of our favorite books and, in some cases, names from the Press’s glorious past. And so we have “The Barrington Atlas of of Greek and Roman Chicken,” the “Copywriters’ Crutch Casserole,” and “Scribner’s Scrumptious Stuffed-Shell Tacos,” to go along with many other distinctive PUP offerings. While the Press-specific epithets may be mysterious to some readers, we trust the quality of the recipes and the liveliness of their presentation will compensate for any confusion.

Each Tuesday, PUP wants to share a recipe from our book for our blog readers to try. Tasty Tuesday is somewhat of a departure from our everyday content. We believe that cooking and cookbooks are a legitimate part of scholarly activity. Scholars like to eat, and many do not eat well enough. “Mens sana in corpore sano,” we always say. We hope the recipes in this book will nourish thought.

TODAY’S TASTY TUESDAY RECIPE:  Don’t Call It English Rødgrød med Flød  A Danish Diarist’s Seduction by Hanne Winarsky A traditional dessert from Denmark, this is a cold strawberry and rhubarb soup (and you can vary it by adding all sorts of sweet summer berries). It’s easy and keeps really well in the fridge for a few days. Serve as a delicious cold dessert to cool down on hot summer nights! about 6–8 rhubarb stalks water, as directed 2 packages frozen, sliced strawberries in syrup 3 tablespoons sugar, or to taste 3–4 tablespoons cornstarch heavy cream (or half-and-half ), for serving sugar to taste Take frozen strawberries out of their packages and put into a bowl on the counter to defrost, partially. Dice rhubarb into ½-inch pieces. Put into a large pot. Add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pot (about 1 cup or so, but it depends on the pot!). Bring to a simmer. Add the rhubarb and cover; simmer over low heat. Check frequently to make sure water has not evaporated. If it has, add a little more—in very small amounts. When rhubarb is soft (about 15 minutes or so), add strawberries and defrosted syrup from the strawberry packages. Simmer, still on low heat, until strawberries are heated and softened thoroughly (about 10 more minutes). In a small bowl, mix 4 tablespoons of cornstarch into 2 tablespoons of water. Stir quickly until you have a smooth mixture with no lumps. Add the cornstarch and water to the simmering rhubarb and strawberry mixture. Stir thoroughly; make sure there are no lumps. Add sugar to taste (about 3 tablespoons—depending on how much rhubarb you’ve used and how much syrup you’ve added; remember the syrup has sugar in it already). I actually prefer to keep it not super-sweet, since you will sprinkle sugar on top when serving. Turn heat way down, and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 more minutes, until the rhubarb and strawberry mix is about the consistency of tapioca pudding. Remove from heat and pour into bowl to cool. Refrigerate. Serve chilled with heavy cream or half-and-half drizzled on top, and sprinkle with sugar. Cooking time: about 40 minutes. Serves 6–8.

The Illustrations
The images of food, tableware, and cooking implements that figure prominently in this book are from Menu Designs, published by The Pepin Press, Agile Rabbit Editions, © 1999 and 2005 Pepin Van Roojen, www.pepinpress.com. These images are used with permission. Other incidental images of books and animals are taken from two Dover Electronic Clip Art Publications, Books, Reading and Writing Illustrations (CD-Rom and book © 1992) and 1565 Spot Illustrations and Motifs (CD-Rom and book © 2007) and are used in compliance with terms of use for materials from Dover Publications, Inc.