Pie Making with Rachel Caygill of Bankers Hill

 
We're heading into holiday pie-making season so when pastry chef Rachel Caygill invited me to her house, where she was hosting a group called the San Diego Food Bloggers for a pie-making class, I had to go. See, Rachel is the superb pastry chef at Bankers Hill Bar and Restaurant, where her husband Scott is the chef de cuisine. I love to go there with my friend Tina Luu, also an extraordinary pastry chef and someone who never orders one dessert off the menu but all of them. So, I've tasted many of Rachel's creations, including her pies. And I wanted to learn her secrets.

Now, this is really going to be more of a pictorial post because so much of pie making is technique and watching Rachel take us through creating the crust for an apple pie was fascinating. But, it's not easy. It involves a lot of physical effort. Rachel throws her whole body into the rolling process. But the results -- a rich crispy and flaky crust encasing a bright apple filling layered in spices -- is so worth the effort. I've also got a number of tips from her that I'm including with the photos. Her apple pie recipe will follow below.

So the first thing you'll notice is that instead of mixing the flour and butter in a food processor to break up the butter, Rachel is rolling slices of it into the flour. Gluten doesn't form until you add water so no worries about over working it. The flour is a half-and-half combo of all purpose and cake flours. After a lot of trial and error over the years, she's settled on a 3-2-1 ratio of flour, fat, and liquid, with a teaspoon of salt per pound of flour. 

Still a little chunky. Then she cuts in lard. Her ratio is 3-to-1 butter/lard.

Rachel then makes a hole in the middle of the flour/fat for a well she fills with water (similar to making pasta).

This gets tricky because the water wants to escape. But use a scraper to pull the flour into the water (and to retrieve the errant water) to form a loose dough.

Rachel pats the dough into a square and then starts rolling to incorporate the ingredients.

Keep the dough moving to prevent sticking and put your whole body into it. It'll grow long. Use the scraper pick up the ends and fold it back into a square and roll it again. You'll do this two to three times.

She's not seeking perfection here, just for the ingredients to begin to come together. For now, the aim is to shape what looks like a loaf.

And, here's the beginning of the loaf.

This goes into the refrigerator to chill and rest for 20 minutes. Or, you can freeze it for later (defrost overnight in the fridge).

The now rested and chilled dough is ready to be rolled out. Rachel cut off a chunk to make the first crust. You can see layers of unincorporated fat. This will help make for a crispy crust. Rachel helps ease the rolling process by pushing the dough out with the heels of her hand. Again, full body work.

Rachel admits she can't roll the dough into a circle -- and doesn't even try. But she says to roll from the middle, keep the dough moving, and flip it over to keep it from sticking.

Rachel rolls the dough onto the rolling pin and eases it over the pie plate. (She uses oversized pie plates that she finds at places like Target.) It's best to have lots of overlap for trimming and rolling the edges.

In goes the filling.

Next comes the top crust and the beginning of crimping the edges. Rachel trims the overhang with scissors. See how the edges of the crust layers align and she folds them together, under, and then down into the side of the pie plate.

Like that. With well-floured hands, she pushes the dough between two fingers for this crimping effect.

Rachel brushes the top with an eggwash, followed by a generous sprinkling of granulated superfine sugar she stores in an airtight container thick with fragrant vanilla beans. Make slits in the top crust to create vents (and separate the vent sides a little to let the air escape so the liquid from cooking apples evaporates. Then bake low and slow -- say, 375˚ for half an hour, then lower the temp to 325˚ for another hour (but this depends on your oven; you may need to start at 400˚). Her reasoning is that it helps the juices evaporate and prevents the top crust from burning. So you get a golden, crispy crust on top, avoid a soggy bottom crust, and create a firm filling.

Cool under pressure with a gorgeous apple pie.

Remember low and slow keeps the filling intact, as you can see here.

A slice of heaven... 

Apple Pie
by Rachel Caygill*
(Printable recipe here)

Rachel Caygill loves cardamom and includes the floral spice in her apple pie filling, blended with cinnamon, ginger, clove, allspice and nutmeg mixed with sweet and tart apples -- in this case Granny Smiths and Fujis. And the crust? Well, the top crackled between my teeth and I loved the thick crisp sides that had been crimped to perfection. This is the pie you want to serve at your Thanksgiving dinner.

*The ingredients and amounts are Rachel's. The instructions are mine based on her directions during the class.

Pie Crust Ingredients
(for two crusts)

15 ounces flour (half all purpose, half cake)
10 ounces fat (7.5 ounces butter, 2.5 ounces lard)
5 ounces water
1 teaspoon salt

1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup superfine sugar

Combine the flour and salt. Spread the flour mixture on the counter or a cold marble tile and cut the butter into it. Then roll the butter into the flour. Use a scraper to chop up some of the flour and roll a little more to incorporate. Then cut the lard into the mixture.

Make a well in the flour/fat mixture and add the water into the middle. Scrape the flour/fat into the water to create loose dough. When the dough is formed, roll it out into an rectangle, then fold into thirds and roll again. Repeat once more if necessary and shape into a loaf. Refrigerate for 20 minutes and make pie filling.

Preheat the oven to 375˚. Cut the dough roughly in half -- one part should be a little larger for the bottom crust. Roll out that piece large enough to fill the pie plate with a couple of inches overhang. Gently place the dough into the pie plate, then add filling. Roll out the top crust large enough to hang over the the filling and bottom crust overhang. Trim the edges of the crust to even out. Then holding the edges of both crusts, fold under together and tuck into the pie plate. Crimp the edges between two fingers.

Make the eggwash by mixing together the yolk and milk. Brush onto the top crust. Sprinkle the sugar on top. Then slice vents into the top crust and spread the edges slightly. Bake at 375˚ for half an hour, then lower the temperature to 325˚ and bake for another hour until the crust is brown and thick juices run out.

Apple Filling Ingredients

2 pounds apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced (use a combination of sweet and tart varieties)
6 ounces sour cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks
3 tablespoons cornstarch
8 ounces dark brown sugar
4 ounces granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped -- or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
zest from half an orange
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon clove
1/8 teaspoon allspice

Combine all ingredients in large bowl, then add on top of bottom crust.

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Invite a Boar to Dinner

A meal of boar sounds so exotic. So wild. So feral.

And, yes, that would be true if we were talking wild boar. But, in fact, a domestic boar is simply an intact male pig. As opposed to barrows, or castrated pigs. And, in case you're wondering, female pigs can be either gilts--never bred--or sows--those females that have had at least one litter.

Meet a boar. Photo courtesy of Dave Heafner

So, now that we've clarified that, on to the boar. Dave Heafner of Da-Le Ranch in Lake Elsinore and a longtime farmers market vendor is now selling boar meat from animals he and his family are raising. Since they're processing the boar at a custom facility, he's not allowed to sell individual pieces so he's selling them in packages of eighths, quarters, halves, and whole. A quarter, for instance is $6.75 a pound and generally runs between 25 and 35 pounds. Cuts can include neck bones, shoulder roast, shoulder steaks, pork chops, tenderloin, ribs, belly, leg roast, leg steaks, shank, foot, jowl, sometimes organs (if requested), and even sausage. Yes, that's a lot of meat -- but families have been known to get together and share orders.

Dave sent me some samples of chops that he cut up for his family and last week I prepared one simply indoors on my stovetop grill, accompanied by a savory apple pumpkin chutney, made with Jackie's Jams pumpkin butter, fresh sage leaves, and honey crisp apples from Smit Orchards.

This particular chop was about 11 ounces, so it was large enough for me to enjoy for two meals but some of the chops are smaller and suited for one portion. They come frozen, so defrost overnight in the refrigerator and then let it sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before grilling. I just added salt and pepper to each side before putting it on the heat.

Give it about five minutes on each side. While it's cooking you can prepare the chutney. You'll be sauteeing the sliced apples with sliced red onions and sage leaves in olive oil. Then add a couple of splashes of Madeira and a pinch of salt.

Pull the chop off the grill and let it rest. Then remove the apples from the heat and stir in a couple of tablespoons of the pumpkin butter, which includes the piquant spices you associate with a chutney, and mix it up.

I cut off the long strip of fat along the side but the rest of the fat within the chop seemingly melted away, leaving a tender, moist, sweet piece of meat with far more flavor than the plastic-wrapped chops you'll find in the supermarket. The apples, onions, and pumpkin butter add an earthy, tangy sweetness that's intensified with the Madeira. It's truly a cozy fall meal, even better served with bitter sauteed greens like Swiss chard or kale.

Grilled Boar Chops with Apple Pumpkin Chutney
Printable version
Serves 2

Typically, chutney is a mix of fruit with spices and herbs. And that's what you'll find here, except that since the pumpkin butter already is filled with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg, there's no need to add any more spices. I added common sage from my garden to give some warm pungency. Plus, sage is known for aiding in the digestion of fatty foods and is the perfect--and traditional--accompaniment to pork.

2 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thin
2/3 cup red onions, sliced
6 fresh sage leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
A couple of splashes of Madeira
Pinch of salt
4 tablespoons Jackie's Jams Pumpkin Butter

1. Oil the grill and heat to high. Season the chops with salt and pepper and place on the grill. Cook about five minutes on each side for medium doneness.

2. Heat olive oil in a saute pan and cook the onions at medium heat until they just turn brown. Add the apple slices and sage and cook for five minutes.

3. As the apples soften, add a couple of splashes of Madeira and a pinch of salt. Turn up the heat to medium high and continue cooking until the apples start to brown. Add a tad more liquid if the mixture dries out. You want the liquid to just evaporate when done.

4. Remove the chops from the heat and let rest. Remove the apple mixture from the heat. Stir in the pumpkin butter. Plate the chops and serve with the chutney.



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Robin Asbell's Big Vegan Blogger Potluck: Matcha Scones with Golden Raisins

I met Minneapolis chef, cooking teacher, and food writer Robin Asbell about a year ago at Rancho La Puerta when I was writing a blog for them about their cooking classes. I spent the day learning about her approach to food and cooking, which I wrote about for RLP and also published on San Diego Foodstuff.

Robin is a self-described "occasional pescatarian." She is basically vegetarian but periodically indulges in seafood. But for her new book, Big Vegan ( Chronicle Books, $29.95), she's delved into the Big Monty of natural foods: veganism.

You can have a chance to win your own copy of the book. See directions below.

Now, while I don't eat a lot of meat anymore I'm neither vegetarian nor vegan. I enjoy my animal products. But if I were to think about it, I certainly do prepare a lot of meals that would fall under the category of vegan, so it was no stretch for me to accept Robin's invitation to participate in a "blogger potluck" she's organized to introduce her book. For the next few days, participants listed below will be rolling out posts around recipes from Big Vegan for everyone -- even non-vegans like me -- to enjoy.

My pick was her Matcha Scones with Golden Raisins. I love matcha--the delicate  green powdered tea, usually whisked into hot water to make a frothy beverage in Japanese tea ceremonies. Matcha is easy enough to find at Asian markets.

Robin explains that, "I think I originally came up with the idea for a Tea and Food Pairing class, and I liked the color. I carry matcha with me when I travel just in case I can't get a cup of tea, and I sometimes put it in my smoothie. I'm really into tea, too."

The ingredients for the scones are pretty basic, but it was the first time I'd baked scones without using the traditional butter and cream that go into them. Instead, Robin uses Earth Balance margarine and coconut milk. And, I liked her suggestion for grating the margarine into the dry ingredients.

First, mix together the dry ingredients.

Then add the grated Earth Balance (it does come in sticks for easier measuring).

Rub it in with your fingers and then add coconut milk.

Finally, you'll add the plump golden raisins and mix it together with your hands before pulling out the dough onto a floured board and shaping it into a disk. The dough is a little sticky so be sure to have extra flour on hand for dusting.

Cut into wedges and then brush with more coconut milk before baking for all of 14 minutes.

Let cool and then enjoy with a cup of coffee or, of course, green tea! The scones are light and have subtle overtones of the matcha -- perfect with the bright punch of the raisins interspersed in each piece. And they certainly fit in with her philosophy about food -- and life:

“I’m an enlightened hedonist,” Robin said back when I first met her. “I want to have fun but I don’t want to suffer.”

Matcha Scones with Golden Raisins
From Big Vegan by Robin Asbell
(Printable Recipe)

For a treat, try these pale green scones, made with cake flour--the whitest flour of them all. It shows off the delicate color and flavor of the tea. You can go back to whole-wheat tomorrow!

2 1/2 cups/315 g cake/soft-wheat flour, plus extra for the counter*
1/4 cup/50 g sugar
1 tbsp matcha green tea powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup/55 g Earth Balance margarine, frozen
1 cup/240 ml coconut milk, plus extra for brushing
3/4 cup/130 g golden raisins/sultanas

1. Preheat the oven to 400℉/200℃/gas 6. Line a baking sheet/tray with parchment/baking paper. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, matcha, baking powder, and salt. With a pastry blender or grater, cut the margarine into the dry ingredients and work it in with your fingers. Pour the milk into the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Add the raisins and mix with your hands.

2. Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and form it into a dish about 3/4 in/2 cm thick for eight scones (or make two rounds for sixteen smaller scones; slice each round into eight wedges). Place the scones on the baking sheet/tray, 2 in/5 cm apart, and brush with milk. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until the bottoms are browned and the edges are golden brown (bake smaller scones for about 10 minutes). Let them cool on the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool on racks. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

* Note: Robin tells me she had included cake flour in the recipe but the publisher changed it to pastry flour. I made one batch with whole wheat pastry flour, which was all I could find at my local store, but the results yielded a heavy doughy scone. When I checked with Robin I learned about the change and made a second batch using cake flour--which is what is shown and written about above. What a difference. These scones were light and the flavor of the matcha came through. So, use cake flour or try white pastry flour. Let me know the results.

And, here's the rest of the potluck group with their Big Vegan recipe posts:

Robin Asbell: Maple Barley Granola
Leinana Two Moons: Baguette French Toast with "Cream Cheese" & Apple
Susan Russo: Mango-Jicama Salad with Lime Dressing and Pepitas
Bryanna Clark Grogan: Armenian Red Lentil Stew with Sesame Brown Rice
Nancie McDermott: Korean Miso-Tofu Soup
Jill Nussinow: Squash Quesadillas with Cranberry-Jícama Salsa
Sandra Gutierrez: Green and Red Spaghetti
Robin Robertson: Bengall Curry of Cauliflower and Kidney Beans
Julie Hasson: Spanish Chickpea Fritters
Pat Tanumhardja: New Potato Rendang with Green Beans
Leinana Two Moons: Sundried Tomato-Kale Calzones and Pumpkin Cherry Bundt Cake
Tara Desmond: Peanut Butter Tart with "Ganache"

Big Vegan Giveaway

Finally, I have a copy of Big Vegan to give away. Even if, like me, you're not a vegan, I think you'll find the recipes in this large book thoroughly intriguing and delicious. I've got a list of ones I've marked to try. So, I recommend you enter the giveaway.

Simply leave a comment below about the best vegan meal you've ever enjoyed. Comments must be posted by noon PDT, Monday, Oct. 24. The person I think wrote the most persuasive comment will win the book. I'll reveal the winner in my email newsletter on Tuesday, the 25th. You can sign up for it here or via the invitation on the right. So, enlighten us with your experience!

Need some extra encouragement? Watch Robin here tease her book and what you'll get out of it:




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San Diego's Top Brewers

San Diego is one of the nation's top craft brewing cities. And we've got no shortage of innovative chefs. Beer. Food. It can be a blissful union. So, with this in mind, Chef's Press has just published a beautiful new book called San Diego's Top Brewers: Inside America's Craft Beer Capital ($24.95). Written by Bruce Glassman and photographed by Paul Body and Michael Pawlenty, the book features 17 top breweries--from Stone and Mother Earth to Alesmith, Ballast Point, Karl Strauss, and Iron Fist--and plenty of bars, taverns, and brewpubs, like the popular Blind Lady Ale House, Live Wire, and Hamilton's Tavern.

And, there's no shortage of delightful sounding beer/ale-oriented recipes created by forward-thinking chefs who clearly have an affinity for brews. After all, beer is a splendid and endlessly versatile ingredient for both savory and sweet dishes. You can use it as stock, for braising, for creating sauces, and as the liquid in pastries. The distinctiveness in brewing styles and tonality means that the chef or home cook can create a unique flavor and texture by astutely selecting their beer or ale. And that's what these chefs did. You'll want to check out recipes like the Green Flash Trippel-Cured Salmon with Smoked-Onion Flan and Barleywine Syrup from Terra's Jeff Rossman; Black Garlic Fondue from Karl Strauss Brewing Company's executive chef Gunther Emathinger; and Shrimp-Imbap from The Marine Room's Ron Oliver.

The book offers pairing tips, describes the brewing process, and tosses in resources for other beer businesses. There's even a section devoted to my favorite cupcake maker, Misty Birchall of Pubcakes, who I've written about in my Local Bounty column in San Diego Magazine. She's got the market on beer-flavored cupcakes like the Red Velvet Glove, that is made with Iron Fist Brewing Co.'s Velvet Glove, and Cup o'Helen, with Ballast Point Wahoo Wheat Beer (the recipe for this is in the book).

San Diego's Top Brewers is a refreshing insight into the idiosyncratic world of brewing with an inside look at the characters that inhabit it and what it's taken to turn their passion into liquid gold.

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Hangin' with Sam the Cooking Guy

The first time I met Sam Zien, aka Sam the Cooking Guy, was a couple of years ago at Congregation Beth Israel, where we were both judging a temple cooking contest. Every time he and I would stand together to discuss a dish, a different elderly woman would come over and literally shove me aside so that her husband could shoot a photo of her snuggled up with Sam.

Sam is clearly a rock star with the bubbe set.

But, Sam's popularity spans across generations or he wouldn't be as popular a figure as he is in San Diego's food scene and beyond, and he's reinforcing that with a new online show, The Sam Livecast, where Sam cooks but also chats about whatever happens to interest him at the moment. And, yes, you can still find Sam the Cooking Guy on TV locally, in LA, Orange County, Las Vegas, and Arizona -- and even on the East Coast in Georgia and Virgina. You can catch videos of him preparing recipes from his shows. You can even shop Sam at "Sam's Store," where you can buy his three cookbooks or kitchen gadgets and gear. Sam is an industry.

He's also a very nice guy and, yes, a terrific cook, as I discovered when I was invited to appear Sept. 26 on The Sam Livecast. The live streaming show is pretty relaxed. He chats with his very young crew and people--like me--who hang out on the couch in the kitchen with Sam's wife, Kelly, his interns, perhaps his sons and their girlfriends. And the two dogs. It's very casual with the periodic f-bomb dropped. But don't let that fool you; Sam knows what he's doing. Ingredients are prepped in a home kitchen any food person would envy. He does his schtick, but then the cooking begins and as easy as he makes it looks, that's how delicious the dish is.

When I was invited on, the idea was basically an appearance with idle back and forth from the couch about my writing. But I thought it would be fun to show him a little of what I do--and promote Olivewood Gardens--so I offered to make corn tortillas with flowers pressed in them with him on the show--as I've been doing with the kids I teach at Olivewood Gardens. Well, the counteroffer was for me just to bring in the tortillas, already made. Which I did, along with homemade tomato salsa.

And that was the inspiration for Sam, along with bluefin tuna that he'd acquired, to make seared bluefin tuna tacos with mango salsa. Prettiest tacos around, what with the gorgeous yellow salsa and being encased in tortillas highlighted with orange and yellow nasturtiums or purple and white violets.

You can catch the livecast on his website, where you'll also find recipes. And I describe there how to make the tortillas. And stay tuned for more shows. The livecast airs live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 6 p.m. pacific time. I hear he's going to have more food writers/bloggers on the show as guests. You never know who will turn up.

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Sage Mountain Farms Amps Up Sage Mountain Beef

Farmer Phil Noble is just a little busy these days. He's still working his Hemet farm, producing beautiful vegetables that you can find at various farmers markets around San Diego. But he's also ramped up the offerings of his beef production, which he officially launched a year ago June. Instead of customers just being able to buy a half, quarter, or eighth of a cow, we have some choices via his online store and at the Hillcrest Farmers Market.

First, you can join the Green-Fed™Beef CSA he launched. Green-Fed means that his cattle are eating what Noble refers to as a "salad-bar buffet," basically the organic watermelon and squash, alfalfa, wheatgrass, and other forages they come across in the pastures. In fact, Noble told me years ago that he'll let his cattle feed on the remnants of his farm harvests to clear the field and give the cattle a hearty meal. Now, I guess, he's started an actual program. And the beef is all the tastier for it.

The CSA has six- and 12-month subscription options and even then you can choose a price point for shares that range from five to 20 pounds.

You can also buy one-off packages from the online store, which meat lovers outside of San Diego should consider. You can get ground beef or London Broil. Or you can get a sampler of cuts totaling about 22 pounds of meat. Or, you can go with the eighth, quarter, half, or whole "pledge." That is, you're not actually ordering the full amount then and there, but pre-ordering that portion for purchase and pick up when it's available.

Of course, as a single person, I'm actually focused in on what Noble brings to the Hillcrest Farmers Market, which is the market where he sells his beef, along with his vegetables. Until recently, all you could get were one-pound packages of ground beef, which is very good. I've made very juicy burgers with it, as well as meatloaf and chile.

But now Noble also carries about 32 cuts at the market, ranging from filet mignon and Porterhouse steaks to rib-eyes, skirt, short ribs, soup bones, and breakfast sirloin. Many of the packages are in the one-pound range.

You can find Sage Mountain Beef at the Hillcrest Farmers Market on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. alongside the DMV parking lot.


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Mexican Modern: Mision 19

I'm always intrigued by Javier Plascenia's food. If anyone can shatter the cliche that most people--other than Mexicans--think of as Mexican food, it is the Plascenias. My friend Beatriz Ladezma of Caxao Chocolates, who grew up with Javier and with whom I had dinner with at the new Mision 19 in Tijuana, explained to me that chefs throughout Baja look to the Plascencias as the epitome of creative and striking menus and techniques. Certainly, they've been doing that at Romesco on the U.S. side in Bonita--with Mediterranean-inspired dishes using local ingredients. Erizo Cebicheria, which I visited in April, melds local seafood with forward-looking approaches--octopus carpacio, for example, or chicharon de tuna.

So, I'd been eager to travel to Tijuana again to try Mision 19, one of the newest additions to the Plascencia restaurants. But this one is truly Javier's. Here, he's cutting loose and making his own imprint without worrying about how it fits in with the rest of the family's dining spots.

The restaurant is housed in Zona Urbana Rio, the city's business district, in a new concrete building--very cool and modern, but the space is warmed by an infusion of wood--whether the long thick planks that hang along the windows or the sleek wood tables and chairs--and color--the red upholstery and the tint of green in the glass.

The food is just as cool and modern, presented on white dishes sitting on squares of lava or slate. Everything pops.

Beatriz and I decided to go with the Chef's menu, which started light--a parfait of avocado meringue, thick housemade yogurt, diced Baja scallops, Persian cucumbers, soy jelly, chiltipin--a local wild chili--and a sprig of salty sea bean surrounded by corn sand. While the layers are beautiful shades of cool green, they are meant to be stirred together and the resulting flavors are an amalgam of sweetness with a tad of heat, umami from the soy jelly and salt from the sea bean.

Next came a petite salad of cured nopal strips mixed with Meyer lemon and grapefruit juice, topped by locally farmed abalone chips, micro arugula, and a chili de arbol salsa--creating a hot, crunchy dish with the slightest undertone of grapefruit. The dish, Plascencia said, was inspired by a dish he had at a local Chinese restaurant.  In fact, there is a distinct Chinese influence in several dishes, due, explained Beatriz, to the large Chinese community in Tijuana. Like the Jewish community I grew up in north of the border, Tijuanans have a tradition of enjoying Sunday dinners at their favorite Chinese restaurants. The Plascencias clearly among them.

Our third dish was deceptively simple--a salad with a thin slice of beef, heirloom tomatoes, and olives. But the beef had been sous vide for more than 48 hours--or, as the menu says, "cooked to high empty for 48 hours and sealed at the moment."

Intriguingly, the waiter, also named Javier, placed spoons in front of us and instructed us to use it to pick up the olives. Okay. The greyish brown olive, reminiscent of a kalamata, was, in fact, not an olive at all. Hello, molecular gastronomy. This was the essence of olive, but a tiny balloon of olive juice with all the salty brine you get when you bite into the real thing.

Fortunately there were several in the salad--and I felt like a kid playing with her food. What fun!

We then segued from light to more substantial. Risotto. But, here too tradition was upended. Think of this as a Mexican version of risotto made, yes, with arborio rice, but also heirloom goat eye beans and pearl barley. No cheese in sight and totally not necessary. The richness of the risotto came from wild mushrooms, zucchini blossoms, black truffle and black truffle oil, and a healthy helping of huitlacoche--also known as black gold, fungus on corn that is a true delicacy. Topping the risotto was epazote foam and what looked like tiny geranium petals.

Easing into fall, this spins traditional rice and beans into an elegant yet earthy and filling dish. I loved the distinctiveness of the textures of the arborio, the barley, and the beans--all chewy but different in their own ways.

How to beat this? Well, our last course was perhaps the one Beatriz and I enjoyed most. Pork belly. Was it a taco? Well, kind of. But again, Javier turned tradition on its head and merged two, actually three, cultures.

The slate tile held what looked like a taco with three sauces. But instead of a corn tortilla was a masa and maiz crepe with a hint of cilantro peeking out. The three sauces? From the left a soy mixture, chili de arbol, and then tomatillo and habanero. Then we each removed our toothpicks.

Inside was revealed more cilantro and slices of scallions topping strips of creamy pork belly. I gingerly added the spicy sauces and finished it with a drizzle of the soy, picked it up and took a bite. Then laughed. Clearly Javier had recently had Peking Duck. The pork belly was a combination of juicy flesh and crispy skin. The soy sauce and the richness of the pork was so "Peking Duck" but then there was the cilantro, the scallion, and those spicy salsas. Taco. Encased in a crepe. This isn't the Mexican food that people go to TJ for--but it should be because it clearly expresses the ingredients and cultural influences that are so key to the region. And so bypasses the cliche of what outsiders think encompasses Mexican food which is, well, just street food.

We finished with a colorful dessert plate centered around panacotta. A long tube of panacotta. Tossed in and around the creamy sweet was pineapple sugar ice, a brilliant blue colored jiricaya--like flan with cream, eggs, and sugar but not ordinarily blue--pistachio brittle, strawberry leather, cacao sand, a whisp of cotton candy, white chocolate raspberries, and a slice of roasted, then poached peach. Altogether it was a circus of a plate. I'm not sure how it fit in with the train of courses we'd been on, but it was a colorful and fun end to a surprising and delicious meal. Next up? Caesar's Restaurante Bar, the birthplace of the Caesar salad, but now, with the Plascencias' ownership, the epitome of Baja's new gastronomic culture.

Mision 19 is located at Mision de San Javier, 10643 in Zona Urbana Rio, about a five-minute drive from the border crossing off the 805.

Chocolatier Beatriz Ladezma and her childhood friend Javier Plascencia

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