roti de porc au lait - les halles

Pork. As Bourdain says, "Unless you're an observant Jew, Muslim or Hindu, there is no reason at all not to throw yourself with abandon into the veritable magical mystery tour that is pork". The pig is truly a delicious and versatile animal that goes much beyond the bacon and ribs that many of us are accustomed to.

Pig feet/trotters? Amazing and jokbal is a great accompaniment to alcohol - paying attention college drunks? (often called anju in Korean) The guts? Used for those succulent sausages you've been grilling up this football season. Pig's blood? Soup, blood cakes and blood sausages. Ears? Tails? Jowl? Skin? It's all edible and it's all delicious in its own unique, porky way. But what about the organs Sean? The heart and better yet - the lungs! My friends, steamed pig lungs from the snack carts on the streets of Korea are absolutely delicious. By now, I've either fascinated you with the versatility and tasty uses of pork or grossed you out completely to turn you into one of those vegetarians.

Ultimately, what am I trying to get at here? Try anything and everything at least once (of course unless you're allergic or unable, due to religious/cultural reasons). You'll be pleasantly surprised how tasty some things can be contrary to prior beliefs.

Roti de Porc au Lait uses the pork loin - a lean, tender cut of meat. The pork loin is first seared then braised for about an hour in milk with aromatic vegetables/herbs until it's cooked through. This sounds fancy (what French dish doesn't?) and the end product makes it seem like you did a lot of work. I'm here to tell you now that you do f*** all to make this dish. Aside from the prep work and 20 minutes of cooking, you set a timer on and go about doing other things. Like studying, watching football, reading a book or taking a nap. Seeing a common trend here? This is probably going to be my go-to dish for any future potlucks at school.

(meez for this recipe. It takes like 10 minutes maximum)

The loin is first seared on all sides with olive oil then set aside. Then goes in your medly of vegetables - onions, carrots, leeks, garlic - until they're soft and caramelized. Add flour to create a roux and after cooking it out a little bit, milk and a bouquet garni is thrown into create an aromatic liquid. The pork is returned and the milk is brought back up to a simmer. Put a cover on and simmer away for an hour until finished, turning and rotating the pork occasionally to prevent sticking. The pork is then removed to rest for 15 minutes while you make the sauce. To make the sauce, the fragrant milk is passed through a sieve and brought to a boil in a small pot. You can get fancy and froth the sauce with an immersion blender but it's perfectly fine without it. We won't be serving Top Chef judges with this recipe.

This recipe turned out to be great with a really rich, savory and sweet sauce. Wait a sec...sweet? Yup. Milk itself has a lot of sugar in it (check the nutrition label next time!) so as it reduces, the sweet flavor becomes concentrated. Next time however, I think I'll start checking the pork for doneness 30 - 45 minutes into cooking. I forgot to account for the additional cooking the pork undergoes while it rests. A mistake that I won't be making next time around. Overall though, a successful dish for my first attempt and a great addition to any dinner party repertoire.