Run! Run, everybody, run! Hey, welcome to “Mythical Kitchen”, where dreams become booed. I firmly believe that every food deserves its fine dining moment. Just in the way that we all deserve our own moment to spruce ourselves up, put on that fancy outfit we’ve been saving for something. I know I’ve been saving my dress shorts for something special. Isn’t that right, Nicole? Sure is, Josh. These look like you won a “General Mills” sponsored beauty pageant. Sponsored by milk. Can you call yourself Miss Milk? I’m Miss Milk. I used to be Cream Lady. So, what we’re doing today, I’m gonna make you a fine dining dish out of “”Cinnamon Toast Crunch””. I’m gonna try and pull out all the stops. Make it as fancy as possible. And the reason I want you to judge it is, is because you are the only person I trust to give your honest opinions. They’re all so afraid of me. They won’t tell me anything in my face. You cowards! Trevor flipped me off. That’s right, Josh. I promise to be a hundred percent honest and give you my true opinion. All right, well, you go and sit over there and practice your world peace speech or whatever, and I’m gonna get to cooking. We’ve broken this recipe down into three easy steps right there. We’ve got a full written recipe down in the description. Let’s do it. Let’s get cooking. Before we talk about how to make a fine dining dish out of “Cinnamon Toast Crunch”, we must have first talked about Italian geography. Now, let me take you on a trip to the Emilia-Romagna region. That’s just north of the Apennine Mountain range along the Po River. The capital of which, of course, is Bologna. They are host to a dish that I find fascinating. I’ve eaten it multiple times. I’ve cooked multiple times. It is delicious. This is called Maiale al Latte, AKA Pig In Milk. This is pig milk. So, we’re gonna make that right now. It is, literally, typically, a pork shoulder that is braised. That’s not what I wanna do. I’m gonna take my raw pork hands and I’m gonna. Nobody eat the cereal. Now the cereal is mine. ‘Cause I touched it with my raw pork. So, I’m gonna eat it. It’s pork braised in milk, which is a really trippy dish. So, I’m gonna take “Cinnamon Toast Crunch”. I’m gonna try and infuse all the sweetness of the “Cinnamon Toast Crunch” into that milk. And I’m gonna use this as a braising liquid for the pork. And this is a really cool dish, because the milk, it may or may not tenderize the pork. I’m not really sure. They say it does, like, I haven’t done the proper A/B testing, but there is, like, lactic acid in milk, which can help tenderize meat. But what it does is the milk actually curdles and creates this, like, really delicious. What’s a good word for scum? It creates positive scum that’s really delicious in the dish. So, I’m gonna use a pork belly, because this is one of my favorite fine dining trends that people just making really dankity dank dank pork belly. And so, I’m gonna take this right here and I’m gonna cut a diamond score into it. Nicole! Did somebody say diamonds? No, I said scum. Oh, man. Sounded like diamonds. Got it. I’m really excited to eat this. Thank you. Can you cook faster? Nope. You don’t strike me as someone who would have competed in child beauty pageants, but you strike me as someone who would’ve, like, had a plan, if you did. Is that a compliment? Like, I feel like. I feel like. Or what? I feel like you’re the type of person who’s, like, “My talent would have been this, my answer for this question would be this.”. No, I was never into beauty pageants, because, honestly, I was, like, a mediocre looking kid. What. I’m a pretty mediocre looking adult. Nah, come on, you got things going for you Now, you see we’re trying to, like… What? It got pork all over me. Oh my God. Don’t wipe your gross pork on me. The reason we’re scoring the pork belly is because, we’re gonna braise this ’til the fat’s all nice and gelatinous. We’re gonna get the salt all in there and then we’re gonna dry it off and drop it in the fryer. Nicole, it’s gonna turn out like nice chicharon crispy pork. I bored now. Stop it! I’m bored. Don’t yell at Nicole. We did it. Look at it. Diamonds. Fancy. So, we got our scored pork belly. I’m gonna take salt and I’m gonna rub them in each and every crevice. All right, each and every crevice’s got salt in it now. No one touch the salt, there’s raw pork in it. And then. We’re gonna pop it’s just the cereal there. Shoot, all right, so, we’re gonna take our cereal milk and we’re gonna. It’s actual double cereal milk, because this is already cereal infused milk that we had in there, but now I’m double infusing it. Then hit it with one of those. Now, you’re gonna take your pork hands. You’re gonna mash the cereal in there and save that for later. Now, aromatics. Nicole, does this feel like fine dining to you? This looks horrible, so far. I think it’s gonna be really delicious. Just wait. We’re getting somewhere. We’re getting somewhere. We’re gonna take our aromatics. We got peppercorn. We got mustard seed. Pork loves mustard and “”Cinnamon Toast Crunch””. My theory here; pork takes really well to sweeter flavors, especially as compared to red meat or chicken or whatever. And so, adding the “Cinnamon Toast Crunch” in there, all we’re doing is adding a little bit of sugar, which is gonna make this brazing jus a little bit sweet and cinnamon, which is a really delicious aromatic that I would add to a lot of braises. So, to me, this really makes sense. Now, we’re taking some porky herbs. We’ve got sage. We’ve got thyme. We’ve got rosemary. Isn’t that a band? “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme”?. There’s, like, a song with a. I’m not crazy. I’m not crazy. You’re the one who’s crazy. Okay. And now we’re just gonna fill up our pig milk with pig milk. So, now, we’re just gonna wrap this up, get in the oven. We’re gonna braise it for, like, like, eight hours or something. We’re gonna really let this go on and get all that fat to get nice and gelatinous. I want all that milk to curdle. Once, I called up a pig farmer and I was like, “Why don’t we drink pig milk?” and he’s like, “Tastes like crap.” and I was like, “Sorry, sir.”. I’m gonna put this pork in the oven. I’ll be back. Don’t. No one eat the oven. I got raw pork on it. Now’s about where things get a little dicey for us. This is it. Here’s your pig milk. And so, if you see, let me just scrape off the aromatics off the top there. Oh God, they’re really stuck in there. So, we pulled the pork out of the brazer. We got chilled down. It takes about 18 hours total for those keeping track at home. In my mind, this is. And I’ve done this before. I’m a professional. Don’t don’t mind me. This is the way to get crispy crackling skin on a pork belly, because this is the way you make chicharrones, is you cook the pork skin then you dry it out and then you drop it in a fryer and then that’s gonna puff up. So, what I’m gonna do, ’cause I’m gonna get some paper towels out. We’re gonna go ahead and dry off this pork belly. This is gonna work. So, we’re gonna go, yeah, this is gonna work. I’m gonna take this and I’m gonna pop it back in the oven just to get it melted, so I can, like, reduce this into a pan jus. Maybe, if this doesn’t work out, could we just, like, flip the graphics on it and just be like, “Food crime.”. Now, can’t get the herbs off of that. And there’s still a lot of positive scum on it. I don’t reckon that’s a taste I’ve ever had in my mouth before. And that’s exciting. It’s all gonna come together. Just you watch. We’re gonna drop this in the deep fryer and then I’m gonna cover it with the splatter guard and run away. Run! Run, everybody run! Oh God. Oh, there’s noises. Well, someone’s got to take it out. It’s not me. Who’s gonna do it? It’s not me. He’s an angry pig milk. The key to cooking is: Don’t do this. I said there is a written recipe in the description. No, we deleted it. Don’t do this at home or anywhere. Don’t go to somebody else’s home. Should I check it? Fear, fear, fear. Fear, fear. Be careful, Josh. Fearless leader. It’s fine. I have a splatter guard. Is this the top or the bottom? Ah, needs a little more time. Sadly, this is all going according to plan. You know, sometimes these dishes that are, like, “This is a rustic tradition dating back to sixteen eighty-.” maybe leave it in 1685. Honestly, I was talking a lot about this pig milk earlier, Maiale al Latte. They just braise it in better things. You know? I don’t know. Maybe the pig milk ain’t worth it. Now it’s doing it. It’s doing it. Maybe I just gotta poke it. All right, so this beautiful pork belly’s been frying off and nothing bad has happened for just a couple minutes Oh I mean shoot. I mean shoot. Let’s check it. Nah, we got it. So hot. We’re going back to the center of the earth. Pork’s done. Okay, this is more or less what I was anticipating. We’re gonna take all that pig scum. We’re just gonna get that slopping out of there. So, that’s gonna be a lot of the starch in that “Cinnamon Toast Crunch” and then all the curdled milk. We’re gonna jimmy out the juice from the “Cinnamon Toast Crunch” and then we’re gonna reduce this into a nice little pan jus. Nicole, are you excited about this? More than I have ever been more excited about anything before. That’s so nice. I’m gonna drop in a little bit of apple cider vinegar into this. We’re gonna bring it up to a boil. We’re gonna add a little bit of sugar and then cinnamon sugar. Now I’m just making stuff up on the fly. Cinnamon sugar and then it’s gonna be a sauce. Whereas we were just in Northern Italy cooking a perfectly executed pork dish. Now, let me transport you to the South of France. South of France. Where are we going? So, we are going down to Southern France. It’s along the Mediterranean. You got, like, Marseilles, you got Nice down there. Uh huh. That’s cinnamon sugar. I know. We’re making panisse and I know you’re familiar with panisse, Nicole. I’ve never actually made panisse before. I know what shape panisse is, but I don’t know what actual panisse is. “Chez Panisse”; legendary California cuisine restaurant headed by Alice Waters, that spawned some of the nation’s greatest chefs, like Jeremiah Tower. And David Lebovitz And David Lee. He actually blogged about panisse, which is how I found out about panisse, Oh, cool. Which is really funny. It is a chickpea fritter that is made with chickpea flour. Similar that the way you make, like, polenta and then chill it, cut it and fry it. We’re gonna be doing that, but with chickpea flour. I need it to be a really nice…God. Thought that was necessary. Micro manager over here. I thought that was necessary. It was, I was gonna do it. I think it needs a little bit more salt. So we’re gonna blend up the “Cinnamon Toast Crunch” with the chickpea flour Uh huh to really infused it in there. Then we’re gonna cook that with water. We’re gonna set it in a little mold to get perfect cubes. Now, its gonna be a nice little, you’re gonna get the pork. It’s gonna be crispy on the outside gushy on the inside. I want this to be crispy on the outside, gushy on the inside, but give you like a sort of different, like, a starch on the plate that’s gonna soak up some of that pan jus. Ah, crud. Which way is on? No. Josh. We’re gonna try and grind the “Cinnamon Toast Crunch” into flour. Do you have a lot of hope for this dish, right now? Something about, like, the atomic bomb noises that were going off? Yeah, I think that’s good, though. Was it? Yeah, you know, you wanna be a little bit scared by your food, eat something that scares you every day. I like to reach in the blade. Josh it’s so very dangerous. Yeah. I’ve cut myself a couple of times. All right. Yeah. You want to cook? Here, stir this up? Ben told me not to cook, ’cause I look too pretty. So I’m gonna go sit. Nicole’s hair ends up all the way everywhere in this kitchen. I shed like a German shepherd. All right. So, we’re just gonna whisk this up. We’re gonna let it come to a boil. Then it’s gonna thicken and we’re gonna get it into that there mold. All right. Our “Cinnamon Toast”, hummus, grits have come together. And now just gonna take this and it’s a very delicate filling process, where I’m gonna fill all the holes, hold on. No, I’m gonna fill all the holes and then I’m gonna scrape it. You’ll see. Ain’t nun’ to it, but to do it. And then I’m gonna take this here scraping device and then just scrape it right off. And then you get hummus grits for later. What does it taste like? That’s hummus grits. It is really hummus grits. I’ll pop this in the fridge and then holy crap. That was so fast. Wow. Not really, we did these before, also there’s one missing, ’cause I got hungry and I ate one. So, now what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna pop these out of their little holes and then just rest them there. And then we’re just gonna pop them in the fryer. This isn’t gonna taste like what I thought I was gonna taste like. All of it, but I’m still pretty confident that I think Nicole is gonna really. That one fudged up. She’s gonna really like it and be really impressed. And now we’re gonna just get them nice and crispy, you’re gonna kind of put them face down and, wait, on one of these one of the sides looks better than the other. Maybe this is, like, “Stick to your wheelhouse, Josh. Maybe make a hamburger.”‘ All right. And now we’re gonna drop these in the old, this one, fryer. Now, we’re gonna dust them in cinnamon sugar. What the ? Oh, God. We keep putting wet things in the oil. Maybe pan frying them is the way to go. If the directive was, “Can you make “Tater Tots”, but gross?” Then I did it. And it’s all about reframing your mindset. Here’s the thing. There’s one simple hack to achieving the life you’ve always wanted. And it’s just, its mindset buy my ebook. You know what? These are done. We’ll get a couple perfect squares out of them. Kind of turn it into bloated, messed up pizza rolls. It’s gonna be good. The flavors are there. We know the flavors are there. We’re gonna trim them up. They’re just rustic. They’re from the South of France. You ever been to the South of France? Exactly. And so, now, I’m just gonna dust them in cinnamon sugar. Just like they do in Nice. The key to dusting is you wanna go as far apart as possible, so all of the cinnamon sugar just ends up on the bottom. I’m just gonna give it a little haircut. Oh, oh hey, now. You’re an all-star. You’re an all-star panisse. That’s good. Oh, hold on. This is gonna be good. No, now it tastes like dessert hummus. All right, let’s do it. Well, we got the pork that almost killed us. That’s been braised in cinnamon milk. We got the pig milk pork. We got the crunchy hummus grit squares. Those are pretty cool. And now we got some fine garnish work to do over here. So, what we’ve got here, these are simply some Granny Smith apples that have been pickled with a little bit of fresh ginger root and cinnamon. I figured, ginger, cinnamon, sugar, apples, pork, these things all work together. So, I’m gonna take these apple squares. Give me your apple meats. And then I’m gonna put them in old bowl. And I’m gonna dress these up a little bit. This is gonna be a nice little acidic counterpoint counterpart. This is gonna be a nice little acidic counterpoint to all the fat and sugar that we got going on. All right. So, we’re gonna take our apples and a bowl and I’m gonna take a little bit of whole pickled mustard seeds. I’m gonna add that to the apples and then take some basil oil. This is simply basil that’s been blended with olive oil and strained. Best thing out basil oil is it’s green. Apples is green. That’s green. Mix it all together. You got a little green mustard apples. That’s fun. I think it’s gonna be nice. I think this is gonna work out. Now, I’m gonna take some of this pan jus. So, we took that pan jus. We added some apple cider vinegar to it. Balanced it with a little bit of butter. Hit it with some black pepper. Now, I’m just gonna take some jus. Flood the middle of the plate with it. Now, we start slicing up this pork. Oh, that’s a good visual of the pork belly in there, though. Super, super supple and tender. There we go. Beautiful. Let’s see this pork belly. I mean, that is really nicely cooked. You know, we burnt the bottom a little bit. Other than that, this is a really gorgeous piece of pork belly in there. So, now I’m gonna take the pork belly. And I’m just gonna kind of, like, lay a couple of slices along that lacquer right there. Beautiful. And now I’m gonna take just a couple of crispy squares. These are sort of mimicking the cinnamon toast of the “Cinnamon Toast Crunch” and, also it mimics the crunch. Now, I’m gonna take some of our delightful little apple garnish and I’m just gonna put a nice little spoonful of that apple relish on top of each piece of pork. Yes, now I’m gonna drop some basil oil. Run basil oil around the plate. And now, just a couple of sprigs of micro greens. Just to, sorta, dress this up a little bit. And then just a little bit more sauce on the inside. Well, there you have it. There’s our fancy. Should I, like, show it to them? I’ll show it to them. Meredith. We have our “Cinnamon Toast Crunch” Cereal Milk Braised Pork Belly. A play on Maiale al Latte, from Bologna, the Emilia-Romagna region. We got our “Cinnamon Toast Crunch” panisse, that’s from the South of France, on the Mediterranean. That is the marseilles speaking through us. We have our Pickled Apple Mustard Seed Basil Oil Relish. Micro broccoli. A little bit of basil oil on the outside. I think this looks dank, dude. I was talking to. I was, you know what? Negative self-talk is poison. Don’t do it. You are worthy. You are better than that. You deserve the world. You deserve pig milk. Nicole. Nicole. Nicole. Yeah, I’m right here. Nicole. You know where I’m sitting. Hey, Nicole. Wow. Here we have the final dish. So, we got that Maiale al Latte Cereal Milk Braised Pork Belly. It’s been fried crispy. We got the Crispy Cinnamon Sugar Panisse Squares on there. A little bit of reduced pan jus. Kind of went agrodolce on it with some apple cider vinegar, some more cinnamon, then a Ginger Pickled Apple In Mustard Seed Relish. I’m gonna garnish a little bit of fresh “Cinnamon Toast Crunch” Yes. all over the top. If this is a fine dining restaurant, I’d call this “cinnamon wheat soil”, Bon appétit. I’m so excited to eat this. I’m not gonna give any, like, commentary until I actually, like. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, enjoy Yeah, yeah, yeah. the dish. Also, my sauce word bled, ’cause Ben bent the plate downward. Hey, that’s okay. Taking pictures. Don’t blame your misfortune on other people. That’s not right. Wow, cuts very nicely. Ah, it’s tender. Well get the, put the relish on. Hold on. The pork’s supposed to be eaten with the relish. Don’t teach me how to eat, boy. The relish is on the pork. You eat with the relish. Don’t teach me how to eat, boy. You don’t know how to eat. That’s good. I like watching you eat. It’s like a muck bang, but in real life. You seem confused. What are you confused about? It seems a pretty straightforward dish. I’m I’m experiencing a lot of flavors that I’ve never tasted before. You and me both And that’s very exciting for me, because, you know, I’m so used to eating so many things. I’m never really shocked by a plate of food, but I’m not only shocked. I’m confused. I’m a little uncomfortable and I don’t know where I’m going with this, but, like, it hurts my brain a little. Yeah, is it in a good way or a bad way? ‘Cause, you know, I like having new flavors. Yeah, me too. What’s confusing? I mean, it has the cook on the pork. I mean. Does the garnish work well with it? Is the jus seasoned properly? I mean. It’s a delicious plate of food and, I think, you’re successful in your delicious plate of food, but I don’t really taste a lot of “Cinnamon Toast Crunch”. I feel like it’s a little bit muddled. I think, I’m gonna give it one more honest-to-God bite, Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Because, I think it deserves it One more bite to determine Yeah yeah if this is a successful dish. Exactly If I have, actually, elevated the “Cinnamon Toast Crunch”. It’s just not “Cinnamon Toast Crunchy” enough. Nicole, I tried to move mountains for you. You always try, I know. I tried to part the Red Sea of culinary innovation. It’s good, but I feel like you could’ve done more. Yeah, honestly I hammered the pork. Yeah. Yeah, could’ve done a better cook on that. You got no flavor from the “Cinnamon Toast Crunch” in the pork. I’ve still nibbled on it. Very little. Tried. ‘Cause there was a lot that went in there. Yeah, I know, but, hey. Guess what your punishment is? What? You get to clean the fryers. So, you’re saying I did not elevate the “Cinnamon Toast Crunch” cereal, officially. I don’t think you did. That’s fair. I still think we put together a great plate of food. I’m very proud of this dish. A couple of things I would have done different, but, hey. You got to wear a fancy dress. That’s fun. Yeah. I’m gonna give you a little piece of your own food, if that’s okay. You want it? Okay, hold on. Wait, I know. I’m not gonna. Sea lion’s hungry. Do you taste any “Cinnamon Toast Crunch” in it? Spit it out, it’s okay. Spit out It’s okay Yeah, it sucks. That’s okay. No, the pan, The pork’s good. The pan jus’s good. Yeah. The relish is good. These little squares of hummus mush are gross as hell. All right. That’s disgusting. You eating those? I kinda like it. Oh, God. It’s like someone tried to make “Tater Tots” outta oatmeal. I’m proud today, actually. This was a really fun time. I’m really stoked on what we’ve created. Nicole, thank you so much for your honest feedback. This is the exact reason. Don’t tongue out in the middle. Thanks so much for stopping by the “Mythical Kitchen”. We’ve got a new episode story every week. We got a new episode of me and Nicole’s podcast, “A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich”, every Wednesday. Wherever you get your dang podcasts, it’s up on “Instagram” Add “Mythical Kitchen” and pictures of your mythical dishes under hashtag #dreamsbecomefood We’ll see you next time. Bye. You can cook up your own feast while wearing the mythical kitchen apron. Available now at mythical.com.