I found numerous recipes online for horchata, so I imagine that just like with the chicha, there are many ways of preparing this delicious and refreshing drink. Horchata is very common in Mexico and Central America and along with jamaica (a drink made from dried hibiscus flowers-looks like red Kool-aid), are two "new" drinks that we've enjoyed trying here.
I did find one recipe that called for cooked rice, but that seems to be the exception, most horchata recipes call for blending the rice uncooked. I'll have to conduct a poll with my Mexican friends to see how they are accustomed to preparing horchata in their homes. Although sometimes I get surprising responses, such as "Oh, I've never made it!" Like yesterday, I was showing a friend some pictures of Gracia and I making flour tortillas...she's Mexican and admitted to having never made tortillas in her life! Hmmm...I guess I made the mistake of assuming all Mexicans can make tortillas! We grew up making tortillas in Colombia because they weren't available there...but, I seriously digress...now back to horchata...here are a couple of recipes that look promising...
Horchata Recipe #1
Soak one cup of uncooked rice in water overnight.
Discard water and put the rice,
1 can of evaporated milk, and 4 cups of water
into the blender. Blend.
Add 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla,
and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.
Strain through a cheesecloth or sieve.
Serve over ice.
Horchata Recipe #2
1 cup uncooked rice
5 cups water
1/2 cup milk
1/2 T vanilla
1/2 T cinnamon
1/2 - 2/3 cup sugar
Pour rice in blender, blend about one minute.
Let stand for 3 hours (or overnight).
Strain rice water into pitcher, discard rice.
Stir the milk, vanilla, cinnamon,
and sugar into the rice water.
Chill and stir before serving over ice.
If you try either of these recipes, let me know how they turn out! I'd love to hear back from you...
I got a kick out of this picture I found of
horchata-in-a-bag! Reminds me of times
we've gone to the neighborhood stores here that sell
soda-pop in glass bottles only.
If you want to leave the store with your soda,
you get it in a bag! With a straw, of course...
I also see that blogger is once again mysteriously squishing all of my lines together even though it doesn't show it that way as I type...I don't think I'll ever figure this thing out! 
6 comments:
yea!!! thanks...I could have done the research myself...but thanks for putting yours on here :)
thinking about trying recipe 1...
although....in the last few years Billy has not been able to drink milk...so I may substitute soy milk. vanilla soy might be even better!
Phil and Steve were trying to find a recipe for a drink with those same ingredients around Christmastime. I'll have to surprise Phil and try it. Thanks for sharing!
Okay, Cindy, I tried recipe #2 today and it turned out pretty good! But I did make a couple of changes. For one thing, after letting the rice soak, I blended it some more before straining it. That broke the rice down even more than it was and made it "milkier". Then, I added all the ingredients except the milk and it tasted pretty good! So I think you could probably leave the milk out entirely or use the soy milk like you said...after that I added a little whole milk, but it didn't seem to change the flavor of the horchata all that much...
gotta go buy some rice!!
We tried recipe 2. it was good.
I think I might soak the rice all night next time. did what you suggested...about blending the rice twice. then put in glasses and added soy to Billy's and milk to the other glasses. pretty good. I doubled the vanilla since stateside is weaker than mexican.
THANKS!!
@Cindy-yes, I think soaking it longer helps a lot...I actually soaked mine longer than the 3 hours, it was more like 6 or 7. Also, the blending it the second time is good...so glad you enjoyed!
Post a Comment