THE BEST RECIPES HAVE A STORY
We’ve survived Capone’s pasta, simmered Johnny Cash’s chilli, and nibbled the Pope’s Alfajores. Today we follow a faint hum into the kitchen of David Lynch.
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Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 1-2
Difficulty: Peasy
Pans required: 1 x Lil’ Legacy Pan
Welcome back to Heirloom Recipes, where we recreate the favourite dishes of history’s most fascinating humans. Uncovering the stories and flavours that shaped the people who shaped us. Today, we recreate David Lynch's surreally simple favourite: Quinoa and Broccoli.
Actually, it is.
Before he made The Elephant Man, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, and a lifetime of cinematic fever dreams, David Lynch was just a young man with a recipe he ate daily.
David had just finished brushing his hair backwards when he heard it.
The light bent slightly and a small monkey in a suit stepped forward.
“You will need quinoa,” the monkey whispered, “and broccoli.”
“I don’t like broccoli,” Lynch replied.
“How strange,” said the visitor. “Broccoli likes you.”
And then it was gone.
From that day on, David Lynch approached the dish the way he approached his films. With precision, mystery, and a spoon.
½ c quinoa
1 ½ c organic broccoli
1 cube vegetable bullion/stock
Braggs Liquid Aminos (or soy sauce)
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
This is a genuine transcript of David Lynch describing how to make his recipe:
"Fill your pan with about an inch of fresh water. Set on the stove, on a high heat and add several dashes of sea salt.
Look at the quinoa. It’s like sand. It’s got real tight little grains, but it’s going to puff up.
Unwrap bullion cube, bust it up with a small knife, and let it wait there. It’ll be happy waiting right there.
When water comes to a boil, add quinoa and cover pan with lid. Reduce heat and simmer for 8 minutes.
Meanwhile, retrieve the broccoli from your refrigerator and set aside. Then fill a fine crystal wine glass with red wine. Use the one given to you by Agnes and Maya from Lódz, Poland. ‘Cause this is what you do when you’re making quinoa. You go outside, sit, take a smoke and think about all the little quinoas bubbling away in the pan.
Add broccoli, cover and let cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, go back outside and tell the story about the train with the coal-burning engine that stopped in a barren, dust-filled landscape on a moonless Yugoslavian night in 1965. Or the story about the frog moths and the small copper coin that became one room-temperature bottle of violet sugar water, six ice-cold Coca-colas, and a handful of silver coins.
Turn off heat, add bullion to quinoa and stir with the tip of the small knife you used to bust up the bullion.
Scoop quinoa into bowl using a spoon. Drizzle with liquid amino acids and olive oil.
Serve and enjoy."
It's time to bring David Lynch's seurreal world into your kitchen. Grab your pan. Press play. And let the Quinoa and Broccoli take the starring role. Listen on Spotify.
