In these troubled times, Salvador Dalí’s 1922 painting, ‘Still Life with Aubergines’, resembles my vegetable basket. There are two brinjals in the image, an orange cut in two and two partially peeled potatoes. But these three ingredients can make for a good dish: cut the potatoes and the brinjal into strips, simmer in orange juice. Season and serve.
But I don’t think a recipe this simple figures in Dalí’s 1973 book, Les dîners de Gala , dedicated to his wife and muse, Gala. When a friend informed me that the book has been reissued, I decided that I would — one day — get a copy of it, and pore over each fabulous recipe. How else would I get to know about dishes such as frog cream prepared with 30 frog legs (and cauliflower), veal cutlets stuffed with snails, and frog pasties?
All cooked up
One recipe is Dalí in a nutshell. It is called ‘Bush of Crawfish in Viking Herbs’. You may try it out if you have lobsters of a certain size and enough liquor at home. You need crawfish of 2 ounces each. Prepare a broth of fish, consommé, white wine, vermouth, cognac, salt, pepper, sugar and dill. Poach the crawfish in this for 20 minutes. Cool it for 24 hours and arrange the crawfish in a dome. Strain the broth and serve in cups.
I shall also spend some time deciphering his surreal paintings in the book, analysing the significance of, say, a skirt made of lobsters draped around an armless woman who stands on dead bodies. The painter once said that when he was six, he wanted to be a cook. It has been pointed out that his Catalonian heritage ensured that food was always present in his imagery.
If Dalí’s menu was a list of exotic dishes, all that Picasso, who also spent considerable time in Barcelona, wanted was eel soup and omelette tortilla niçoise. He shared his recipes with Vogue in 1964.
The omelette is fairly simple, or so you’d think. Gently heat 6 tablespoons of olive oil in a flat-bottomed frying pan. Add one large onion, cut into rings, and, after five minutes, 4 seeded and diced green and red peppers. Cook for a few minutes, and then add 2 seeded and diced tomatoes. Let it simmer over a low flame for an hour. Make sure the veggies don’t stick to the pan. Uncover the pan, pour in 2 tablespoons of wine vinegar, and cook until the liquid is reduced. Beat 8 eggs in a bowl. Pour over the vegetables, stir, and let the omelette cook gently. Don’t touch it. When set, put a big plate over the pan and flip the omelette on it.
Frog for dinner
You think you’re done? Not if you are Picasso. Put it back into the pan and cook over a higher flame till golden. Cut it and serve with garlic aioli. But Picasso is a baby compared to Dalí.
Take Dalí’s avocado toast: surely it would be just that? Wrong. Dalí’s recipe has poached lamb brain mixed with avocado pulp. To that you add minced almonds, salt, cayenne pepper and tequila, and spread it on toasted slices of rye.
I have been reading the recipes on the Internet and thinking about the man who could imagine the unimaginable. The book is not just full of exotic dishes and jaw-dropping pictures but contains some valuable advice too. There is one delicate dish that he insists should be prepared only in Brussels.
There is a wonderful little video of a party hosted by the Dalís. Gala is dressed like a unicorn and feeds what looks like a baby leopard. Fish is served to actor-performer Bob Hope in a satin slipper. And the main course — a covered dish — startles Hope and actor-comedian Jackie Coogan: when the lid is opened, live frogs jump out.
Did someone say surreal?
The writer likes reading and writing about food as much as he does cooking and eating it. Well, almost.
