By Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times

Dressed in torn cargo pants and beat up Vans, architectural designer and DIY influencer Ben Uyeda was stretched out poolside in a rare moment of repose on a recent Tuesday evening at Reset, his new hotel in 29 Palms.

“This is the best time to watch the mountains,” he said, looking south toward the direction of Joshua Tree National Park. “Right now they look really jagged, but they’ll turn soft and orange as the sun sets.”

Sitting next to him were his collaborators Emi Kitawaki and Jen Whitaker of the design firm Gry Space who created the look and tone of Reset’s spare, earthy interiors. Sharing a cold cucumber salad from the hotel’s in-house restaurant, they gazed across the spacious pool area with its wide platform loungers and stucco walls that perfectly matched the color of the dusty landscape beyond.

“The sky is the show,” Kitawaki said, looking up.

Reset, which opened to the public this summer, is a new kind of hotel for the high desert: Modern. Minimal. Modular. While the pool area with its hot tub, sauna and thoughtful landscaping is pure desert luxury, the rest of the hotel consists of 65 rectangular-shaped, free-standing rooms laid out in neat rows. Each sparsely furnished room is outfitted with carefully selected amenities that suggest a highly curated camping trip — a stylish solar lantern, in-room pour-over coffee, an outdoor fire pit and, most importantly, a sturdy cushion on the private outdoor patio for stargazing.

“The best view here is always up,” Uyeda said.

The rooms are not technically built from shipping containers, but with their boxy shape, corrugated silver sides and narrow dimensions, they sure look like it. Walking along the hotel’s concrete paths, the overall effect is far more sci-fi than Old West. As one guest put it, “It feels like a test case for Elon Musk’s first colony on Mars.”

The hotel’s designers say the evocation of space travel was deliberate.

“When we came onto the project, the first thing Ben mentioned was what would humans do if we built a community on Mars,” Kitawaki said. “Everything is designed from a more mission, utilitarian standpoint: What is actually needed?”

A DIY hotel

A handful of new hotels opened in the Joshua Tree area as tourism to the park has soared over the last several years. The most recent additions include the bare-bones Field Station, which took over the former Travel Lodge in Yucca Valley in 2024 and Hotel Wren, a revamped 1940s roadside motel in 29 Palms that opened this year. But Reset is the first hotel to be built from the ground up in the area in 15 years.

Uyeda, who has more than 1.6 million subscribers on his YouTube channel HomeMade Modern, got involved with the project after building a shipping container house in Joshua Tree and releasing a docuseries detailing the process in 2020. A former professor of architecture at Northeastern and Cornell universities, he’d noticed that as home prices skyrocketed there was a corresponding increase of interest in potentially more affordable construction like tiny homes, earthships and container homes. “People say it’s a trend, but in fact only about 100 of these have been built,” he said. “I don’t have a negative take on shipping container houses, but if something was really moving the needle then more people would be doing it.”

Related Articles

Pilgrims turn Spain’s Santiago de Compostela into the world’s latest overtourism flashpoint

Now summer’s over, here’s what to do with all those photos on your camera roll

First look: Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights haunted houses for 2025

Inside the newest hotel in Ojai, which is also the oldest

Mahjong nights draw young crowds to San Francisco bars and restaurants

Soon after completing his shipping container house, Uyeda began having conversations with his now business partner Adam Wininger about how the rise of Airbnb was converting desperately needed housing in the desert to vacation rentals. They wondered if building modular structures on land that was already zoned for commercial use might be one solution to increasing lodging units without impacting local housing supply. While the process of building modular is not cheaper than a regular build, it is faster, especially in a remote desert location.

“We’re both native Californians,” he said. “There is a real demand for this kind of hospitality.”

The seeds of the Reset were planted.

The team acquired 180 acres of property in 2020 and began construction in 2023.

Room modules were made in a factory outside of Ontario, Canada, at the same time that foundation work was occurring in 29 Palms. Throughout the process Uyeda promoted the hotel on his social media feeds by releasing DIY videos demonstrating how he and his small team hand-built 500 pieces of furniture for Reset including fold-out desks, couches, daybeds and a vase made out of rock while also offering his followers a sneak peek at Reset’s construction process.

“So often you don’t know what’s real and what’s not,” Kitawaki said. “But when you come here, it feels personal. You’re connected to the items you see in the hotel because you saw how they were made.”

Waking up on Mars

So, what’s it like to stay in a futuristic, DIY desert hotel?

“The word ‘Mars’ has come up a lot,” said a young man from San Francisco who was visiting with his girlfriend. “The name Reset feels apt. We definitely feel like we are taking a break from civilization.”

The hotel has four types of rooms — two offer desert views, two do not. I booked the Mountain View Suite, which has the most bells and whistles. In the context of Reset this means it had a large window at one end of the unit that looked out toward the park, a couch in the room and a soaking tub on the private outdoor patio. Like all the rooms, it was also equipped with an outdoor fire pit and a comfortable cushion for stargazing.

The room itself was neatly ordered with walnut and cement accents. Nothing felt extraneous. Everything felt organic, a choice the designers said was deliberate.

“It was all about how do we get the inside to look like the outside,” said Whitaker who, with her partner Kitawaki chose all the furnishings and finishes down to the organic bath products from Flamingo Estate. “It’s why we used so many materials from the land itself.”

Reset is just 6 minutes from the 29 Palms entrance to Joshua Tree National Park, making the hotel an easy home base for exploring the park. It also offers easy access to the growing community of creative businesses in the town of 29 Palms.

When I first arrived at Reset, I was taken aback by the starkness of the space, but it didn’t take long for the hotel’s minimalism and clean lines to grow on me. Whether I was in bed, at the pool, or lying on my private patio, the thoughtfully designed spaces always encouraged me to look out and up.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the Mojave, and each time I visit I am struck again by its otherworldliness. Sitting in my modular room at Reset, comfy in my little pod, I felt I could stare out at it all day.

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is stuck on pause Wednesday as it waits to hear from the Federal Reserve in the afternoon, when it’s expected to deliver the first cut to interest rates of the year.

The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1% and was drifting near its record set on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 252 points, or 0.6%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower.

Anticipation has been building for months about this afternoon’s announcement by the Fed. The decision itself will likely be an afterthought because traders and economists already widely expect the Fed to cut its main interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point.

What’s more important will be what Fed officials say about the probability of more cuts. The unanimous expectation is that they will keep lowering rates through this year and into next in order to prop up the slowing job market.

Reports are showing that it’s become more difficult for people to find a job, which could be forcing the Fed to see it as the bigger problem for the economy than the threat of higher inflation.

The Fed has been keeping rates on hold so far this year because lower rates can push inflation higher, and it’s been worried about how much President Donald Trump’s tariffs will raise prices for all kinds of products. Inflation has so far refused to go back below the Fed’s 2% target.

Stocks have run to records on expectations for easier interest rates. That in turn raises the possibility of disappointment for Wall Street if Fed Chair Jerome Powell hints at fewer cuts coming than everyone expects. Fed officials will also be releasing their projections for where they see interest rates and inflation heading in upcoming years.

On Wall Street, Workday helped lead the market with a gain of 8.8% after Elliott Investment Management said it’s built a stake of more than $2 billion in it and supports its management. The company, which helps customers manage their finances and human resources, recently increased its program to send cash to investors through purchases of its stock by up to $4 billion.

Related Articles

Is DoorDash eating into your retirement?

The Federal Reserve wrestles with how many interest rate cuts to make and how fast

Mortgage rate scenarios to watch following a likely Fed rate cut

Jerry quits Ben & Jerry’s, saying its independence on social issues has been stifled

Amid bankruptcy, some Publishers Clearing House winners are facing the end of ‘forever’ prizes

Lyft drove 14.3% higher after saying it will bring autonomous ride-hailing service to Nashville with Waymo.

On the losing end of Wall Street was General Mills, which fell 1.3%. The food giant reported a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, but its revenue only roughly matched forecasts. It also said it expects investments it’s making in brands to drive growth, such as Blue Buffalo’s launch into fresh pet food, to knock its profit lower in its upcoming fiscal year.

RCI Hospitality Holdings dropped 8% after New York’s attorney general accused executives of bribery and other crimes for trying to avoid paying millions of dollars in sales taxes. RCI owns strip clubs and sports bars across the country, including Rick’s Cabaret.

Later in the day, the online ticket marketplace StubHub will see its stock trade on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time. Its stock will trade under the symbol “STUB” and sold at its initial public offering for a price of $23.50 per share.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2% from its record after data showed Japan’s exports to the U.S. dropped 13.8% in August from a year earlier, as auto exports were hit by Trump’s tariffs.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.02% from 4.04% late Tuesday.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

By JESSICA DAMIANO

The third week of September is National Houseplant Week, a nod to the fact that we’re turning our attention to indoor plants. It’s a great time to explore a practice called kokedama and have a little fun making a special addition to our collections.

The Japanese method of growing plants in a living planter made of a moss-covered ball of soil, is a simple, DIY project that elevates common houseplants into works of art. They make great gifts, too.

Because roots growing in exposed soil dry out more quickly than potted ones, plants with low-water needs are ideal for kokedama. I make mine with spider plant “pups,” but you might also consider pothos or philodendron for low-light areas, or succulents for brighter spots.

This Dec. 1, 2019, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows the supplies needed to make a kokedama, sheet moss, peat moss and potting mix (left to right) laid out on a plate on Long Island, N.Y. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

What you’ll need

2 large bowls

Peat moss

Bonsai soil (or ordinary potting mix that contains peat moss and perlite)

Water

Preserved moss sheets (available at craft stores)

Scissors

Waxed thread or fishing line

A small plant

Directions

This Dec. 1, 2019, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows sheet moss soaking in a warm water bath on Long Island, N.Y. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

Start by placing a sheet of preserved moss into a bowl. Add warm water to cover it.

Take your plant out of its pot and gently remove excess soil from its roots. Set it aside.

Make your potting mix in the second bowl by combining 7 parts peat moss with 3 parts soil. Slowly and gradually add water to the mixture, combining it with your hands until you can form a firm ball large enough to contain your plant’s roots. Pack the ball tightly as if making a snowball. Toss it gently into the air and catch it; if it doesn’t break apart, you’ve achieved the right consistency.

Cut or split the ball in half, then place one half on either side of your plant’s roots, molding it back into a ball.

Next, remove the sheet of preserved moss from its water bath and place it face down on your work surface. Place your plant, right-side up, on the sheet, and wrap the sheet around the plant’s mud ball-encased roots. Use scissors to trim off any excess moss.

Secure the moss by wrapping waxed thread or fishing line around the ball in all directions, then tie it into place. Avoid using cotton or jute twine, as they will wear out over time.

Water your kokedama immediately by soaking the ball in a bowl of water for 15 minutes, or until it is fully saturated. Squeeze it gently, then place it in a colander in the sink until the water stops draining.

Feel the weight of the soaked ball, and when it feels light by comparison, water the plant again in the same fashion. Depending on the type of plant and the humidity in your home, you may need to water it anywhere from twice a week to once a month.

This Dec. 1, 2019, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows the process of wrapping the mud-encased roots of a small spider plant with sheet moss when making a kokedama on Long Island, N.Y. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

Caring for the plant

Display your kokedama on a decorative plate or suspend it from a plant hook (tie three lengths of waxed thread or fishing line to the string on three sides of the ball, then tie them together at the top to make a hanger). Grouping several kokedama plants together on a tray makes for an interesting centerpiece. Use your imagination!

To prevent kokedamas from drying out in arid climates or during winter when indoor heating is in use, consider running a humidifier nearby or placing them in a bathroom where daily showers provide humidity.

This Dec. 1, 2019, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows a spider plant “pup” held in place on one half of a split mud ball for use in making a kokedama on Long Island, N.Y. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

Prune the plant by up to half its size every spring to prevent it from outgrowing its kokedama, which would stress and ultimately kill it. It is possible to replant it into a larger ball, but only once, as a kokedama won’t be able to support larger roots.

Fertilize only once a year, in spring, by adding a quarter teaspoon of soluble organic fertilizer to the bowl when watering.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

National Hispanic Heritage Month begins on Sept. 15, and what is a celebration without delicious food? In San Diego, we’re very comfy with the dishes popular just on the other side of the border, but Mexico is a large and diverse country with other regional dishes that aren’t as well known in San Diego — and should be.

One of them is cochinita pibil. This is a traditional pork dish in Yucatán, a Mexican state located on the northern part of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Gulf of Mexico. The dish is the essence of Yucatec Maya culture.

“Traditionally, we’d use the whole pig,” explained Raul Casillas, the new creative chef at Puesto restaurants. “You marinate the pork overnight, then you wrap it in banana leaves and bury it in a hot pit, where it slow cooks for hours.”

Casillas, new creative chef at Puesto restaurants, blends ingredients for a cochinita pibil marinade. Casillas said he enjoys his “R&D opportunity to represent Mexico and do something cool.” (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The marinade traditionally is a mixture of achiote (an orange-red paste made with ground annatto seeds), citrus juices and a variety of spices.

“When it’s done and you pull it out of the pit, the aroma from the banana leaves and the spices give it its real magic,” Casillas said. “But Yucatán is all about these recados, these combinations of spices, and this is one way to highlight them.”

Casillas is a native San Diegan and was first exposed to Mexican food by his grandmother. After training at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas, he had stints at Jaleo, a José Andrés restaurant, and then at L’Atelier by Joël Robuchon. After eight years in Vegas, Casillas returned to San Diego to help open Valle in Oceanside with Roberto Alcocer. He then landed at Puesto for what he described as “an R&D opportunity to represent Mexico and do something cool and have fun every day making nice items. I enjoy the creative aspect of it.”

Casillas developed a riff on cochinita pibil for Puesto, along with a celebratory Pistachio Tres Leches cake, and shared his recipes and techniques here.

Casillas’s cochinita pibil taco is enveloped in a freshly made, warm blue corn tortilla. It’s rich from pork belly, piquant from the varied spices in the recado blanco (a spice blend), with just enough acid from the marinade and the traditional red onions. To that he adds a slice of creamy avocado, sprinkles of citrusy cilantro leaves, thin slices of serrano pepper and the satisfying crunch of chicharron pieces (get them freshly cooked at the counter of a market like Northgate and cut them into 1-inch pieces).

Related Articles

Marilyn Hagerty, Grand Forks Herald columnist whose Olive Garden review went viral, dies at 99

Longtime St. Paul coffee shop Kopplin’s to close next month

Recipes: Make these Rosh Hashanah dishes to usher in a sweet new year

Quick Fix: Beef Fried Rice

Ale Caesar: Beer pairings for your favorite salads

Preparing cochinita pibil is a two-day project — one day to prepare the marinade and let the pork bathe in it overnight, and the next to cook the pork. There’s no whole pig or pit or even banana leaves involved: Casilla developed a recipe that even a home cook can follow.

The rest is straightforward. Make the recado blanco first so you can add it to the marinade. It’s filled with dried oregano, grilled garlic cloves, black peppercorns, cloves, cumin, cinnamon, coriander, salt, and orange and lime juices. Be sure to toast all of the spices to bring out the flavors before blending them.

“Making this at home is special because it’s the freshness of the spices,” Casillas explained. “It’s called ‘blanco’ or white instead of ‘rojo’ or red because of the coriander instead of the annatto seed.”

You only need 2 tablespoons for this recipe, but because it’s difficult to puree such a small amount in a blender, you’ll have plenty to use as a marinade for grilled chicken or fish or to put in a mole later (yes, you can freeze it).

Casillas pipes on passion fruit cream to top the Tres Leches Cake, (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

You will add the recado blanco to the rest of the marinade ingredients. But first, grill the tomatoes and onions. The idea is just to char both to pull out a smoky flavor. Seed and remove the stems of the guajillo chiles and grill them also to a deep brown.

Now blend all the marinade ingredients and marinate both the pork shoulder and belly overnight in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, prep the pickled onions and refrigerate, alongside the pork.

The next day, you’ll first quickly grill the meat just until it has grill marks, then roast it with some of the marinade in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for 4 hours. Refrigerate until cold and the fat has solidified. Remove the fat and reheat the meat in the braising liquid. Then pull the meat apart and assemble the tacos.

The Pistachio Tres Leches cake is about as traditional Mexican as you get, but Casillas wanted to zhuzh it up and came up with the idea of pairing the cake with pistachios — and a passion fruit cream.

“Tres leches is this jewel of Mexico,” he explained. “It’s a super wet cake with condensed milk, evaporated milk and regular milk. It’s traditional to have at birthday parties, but usually with a whipped cream frosting and some strawberries on top. It’s one of my favorite cakes.”

For his version, Casillas wanted to have some fun and make it more special — so he added a pistachio praline and nougatine. The praline starts out as a solid sweet before being chopped in a food processor into a paste. The nougatine, too, is baked on a sheet pan until solid and then chopped into small pieces in a food processor.

The cake is simple and light. Once it’s baked and cooled, you’ll slice off the edges with a serrated knife, cut into rectangular serving pieces and soak in the tres leches. The milks will initially bubble. Once they go away and the slices feel heavy, remove them and place on plates. Using a pastry bag, pipe the passion fruit cream in three ribbons lengthwise on each slice. Then pipe lines of praline paste to fill the two spaces between the cream. Casillas recommends using your right hand to press out the cream and praline paste, with your left hand’s index finger to guide. Finally, sprinkle toasted pistachio pieces and the crunchy nougatine on top.

Cochinita Pibil Taco wraps richly marinated pork in a fresh, warm blue corn tortilla. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Cochinita Pibil Taco

Makes 12 to 15 tacos

INGREDIENTS

For the marinated pork roast:

1 pound skinless pork belly, cut in half

2 pounds pork shoulder, cut in five 4-inch cubes

2 1/2 quarts cochinita marinade (recipe follows)

For the cochinita marinade: 

2 tablespoons recado blanco spice blend (see recipe below)

5 Roma tomatoes

1/2 red onion

7 cloves garlic, peeled

4 dried guajillo chiles, de-stemmed and seeded

2 1/2 teaspoons achiote

1 cup orange juice

1 cup lime juice

1 teaspoon Mexican oregano (whole)

1 tablespoon kosher salt

For the recado blanco:

1 teaspoon dried oregano

12 cloves peeled garlic, grilled on a scorching pan (not nonstick)

2 teaspoons whole black pepper

12 whole cloves

1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoons ground coriander

4 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup lime juice

For the pickled red onions:

3/4 cup lime juice

3/4 cup orange juice

1 habanero chile, de-stemmed

1 red onion, julienned

For the tacos:

Fifteen 5-inch blue corn tortillas, warmed

2 pounds cooked cochinita pibil roast

Pickled red onions

4 to 5 serrano chiles, sliced thin horizontally into wheels

1/4 pound chicharrónes, already cooked (available at Mexican markets like Northgate’s prepared food counter), cut into 1-inch pieces

Leaves from 1 bunch cilantro (discard stems)

2 avocados, peeled and sliced lengthwise

DIRECTIONS

1: It will take 2 days to prepare the cochinita pibil roast — one day to marinate and the next day to cook.

2: Make recado blanco to include in the marinade: Toast spices on a hot pan without oil separately, not together, for about a minute until fragrant and golden. Blend all ingredients in Vitamix or other blender until very fine, and a consistent paste is achieved.

3: Prepare the cochinita marinade the day before serving: Grill Roma tomatoes, red onions, and garlic until charred on the outside without caramelizing but still raw inside.

4: Toast guajillo chiles in the oven at 350 degrees for approximately 3 minutes until crispy, but not colored.

5: Once vegetables are grilled and spices and chiles are toasted, combine all ingredients in a blender bowl and blend on high until the marinade is smooth.

6: Marinate the pork overnight with all the marinade.

7: Prepare the pickled onions: Combine the juices and habanero in a blender bowl. Blend until smooth, and strain.

8: Cut tops and bottoms off from the onion. Peel and quarter the onion. Julienne onions lengthwise and thinly in a mandolin.

9: Place onion slices in a 2-quart container, cover with the habanero juice and refrigerate until ready to put together tacos.

10: The next day, pull and grill all the meat, until you have grill marks. Reserve the marinating liquid.

11: Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Place the grilled pieces into a roasting pan deep enough to hold the pork and some of reserved marinating liquid. Cover with aluminum foil and roast for 4 hours, until tender and it falls apart.

12: Once tender, allow to cool in refrigerator until cold and fat solidifies — 2 to 4 hours. Then remove the solid fat. Once removed, reheat the braised meat either on the stove or in a 350-degree oven for about 30 minutes. When ready to use, pull meat apart and keep it hot in the braising liquid.

13: Make taco: Place 2 ounces of the braised pork in a warmed tortilla, making sure it’s not too saucy.

14: Garnish with a pinch of pickled red onions atop the pork. Place three serrano slices over the red onions randomly. Then add 3 pieces of chicharrones along the taco. Garnish with three cilantro leaves and finish with a slice of avocado.

Pistachio Tres Leches Cake. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Pistachio Tres Leches Cake

Makes 12 servings

INGREDIENTS

For the cake:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

4 large eggs

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole milk

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into several pieces

For the praline paste:

2 1/2 cups unsalted shelled pistachios

1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

For the pistachio nougatine:

2 1/4 cups unsalted shelled pistachios

1 3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons pectin (available online)

3/4 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup corn syrup or syrup glucose

For the passion fruit cream:

2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup chilled passion fruit puree

For the tres leches mixture:

1 cup whole milk

1 cup evaporated milk

1/4 cup condensed milk

For the garnish:

3/4 cup chopped shelled pistachios

DIRECTIONS

1: Adjust oven rack to middle position. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-by-12-inch pan with nonstick spray.

2: Place flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir with a whisk to combine. Set aside.

3: In a stand electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Beat at a medium-high speed until light in color and fluffy, for about 2 to 3 minutes.

4: Add milk and butter to a medium saucepan and melt butter on medium heat (do not boil). Beating on medium speed, add butter mixture to egg mixture. Then alternately fold in 1/3 of dry mixture and 1/3 of milk mixture. Repeat alternating and folding until all ingredients are added and folded in.

5: Place batter in prepared pan and smooth out surface. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Set on cooling rack and cool.

6: Prepare the praline: Spread out pistachios on a rimmed baking sheet lined with a sheet of Silpat and toast at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Place next to stove to cool. In a heavy-bottomed, large saucepan, heat sugar on medium-high heat until it melts and turns a nice caramel color (instead of stirring sugar, swirl the pan off heat from time to time until all the sugar is melted). Drizzle caramel over pistachios, sprinkle with salt, and set aside to cool. When cool, break into pieces and process in food processor until finely chopped into a paste. Place in a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip. Set aside.

7: Prepare the nougatine: Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Add pistachios to a food processor bowl and pulse to chop. Add pistachios to an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add pectin and powdered sugar and mix on low speed to combine.

8: Add butter and corn syrup to a medium saucepan on medium heat. Heat just until butter melts. Pour hot mixture into mixer with the other ingredients and blend on medium speed until well combined.

9: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spread mixture onto prepared rimmed baking sheet using a silicone spatula. (Alternately, you can roll it out between two sheets of parchment paper using a rolling pin.) Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool. Break into pieces and chop in a food processor. Set aside.

10: Make the passion fruit cream: Place a medium bowl in the refrigerator to chill. Once cold, combine the cream, sugar, and passion fruit puree in the bowl. Beat stand mixer until whipped into stiff peaks. Gently transfer to pastry bag with a small opening. Place in refrigerator.

11: In a medium-large bowl, stir together the tres leches ingredients. Invert cake to remove it from the pan. Using a serrated knife, shave off browned top and browned sides. Cut into serving size rectangles.

12: To plate, poke each serving of cake with the tines of a fork and then dip-soak in the tres leches mixture until cake absorbs liquid. Place on plates. Pipe passion fruit cream in three “logs” in a back-and-forth swirl on top of each piece of cake. Then pipe two rows of praline between the passion fruit “logs” (this will require some muscle). Sprinkle with chopped nougatine and a small amount of chopped pistachios. Serve.

Recipes from Raul Casillas.