Quinoa by David Lynch
Fill a fine crystal wine glass with red wine, ‘cause this is what you do when you’re making quinoa. Go outside, sit, take a smoke and think about all the little quinoas bubbling away in the pan. — David Lynch
I like quinoa. A lot. My family of carnivores makes a quick exit from the kitchen when I’m cooking it. As they’re fleeing with their faces scrunched up they ask “What smells like cat feces?” I smile. I’m left alone to enjoy a glass of red wine and the cooking of the quinoa, a good hour-long delightful ritual. A staple of Andean diets for thousands of years, quinoa (KEEN-wah) has been called a super food mainly because of its high protein content and potential to ease world hunger.
The grain is idolized here by David Lynch. I like David. So the perfect pairing sets the stage for an excellent video short. Maybe this very Lynchian of pitches will turn you on to quinoa; maybe not. It really doesn’t matter. We’re watching compelling cinema here, portraying being fully in the now as we shift. Part One opens at peak Lynch — pulsing dark music underneath, pierced by stark lighting and the relentless patience for the slow build that may be David Lynch’s alone.
David made the video as an extra for the 2006 Inland Empire DVD. By Part Two we are way down the rabbit hole, a portal to Lynch’s inner life. Everything pulsates and glows fully present. Mundane tasks are now global shifts of consciousness brought on by the magic of quinoa – and Lynch.
If all this has you intrigued here’s Lynch’s recipe. It reads like a page from a Twin Peaks script, with words that make you feel a bit dark and uneasy as he leads you through tangents of asides and digressions.
Yield: 1 bowl
Cooking Time: 17 minutes
Ingredients:
1/2 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cups organic broccoli (chilled, from bag)
1 cube vegetable bullion
Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Preparation:
* Fill medium saucepan with about an inch of fresh water.
* Set pan on stove, light a nice hot flame add several dashes of sea salt.
* Look at the quinoa. It’s like sand, this quinoa. It’s real 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 broccoli from refrigerator and set aside, then fill a fine crystal wine glass—one given to you by Agnes and Maya from Lodz, Poland—with red wine, ‘cause this is what you do when you’re making quinoa. 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 7 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. 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 handfuls and handfuls 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.
I told you ten is the limit, ten is OK. — Hayao Miyazaki
The highest manifestation of wisdom is kindness. 
If David Lynch ever decided he wanted to make a cooking show, it would probably be one of the most inventive/creepy cooking shows out there. And I would watch all of it.
–JW
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