It seems something has been very absent from my blog. I have yet to post any recipes that represent my Mexican background. Well with summer coming to an end it is my last opportunity to sit poolside with a refreshing drink. And lately I've been craving a little known mexican drink called Agua De Horchata. This agua fresca, or fresh water is made from rice, cinnamon, vanilla, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and water. It is extremely popular in Mexico but very rarely served at Mexican restaurants here in the states.
Ingredients:
1-can Carnation evaporated milk
1/2-can Sweetened condensed milk
1/2- cup long grain rice
1- tsp high quality vanilla (Mexican varieties offer best results)
1- stick Cinnamon
water
ice
Equipment:
blender
fine sieve
Directions:
place 1/2 cup of rice and 1 cinnamon stick in a bowl and cover with water let sit overnight.
If you don't want to wait all night you can also cover the rice with WARM water and let sit for 2 hours. If you choose the second option it is really important that the water be WARM not HOT.
Remove rice and cinnamon from bowl and place in your blender, in the blender add the whole can of evaporated, half can of sweetened condensed milk, and 1 tsp vanilla. Blend until smooth.
Pour the mixture over a sieve into a large (really large) pitcher making sure that no large bits get through, this is why it will be important to use the finest sieve you can find.
pour water into pitcher starting with 1/2 gallon. taste. mixture should not be too thick or milky, nor too watered down. If the mixture is not sweet enough feel free to add sugar to suite your taste. serve over ice.
I have been looking for an authentic horchata recipe for some time now and I think yours looks fabulous. I am wondering if the horchata I am ordering in my favorite taqueria is similar to this recipe. It is deliciously rich and tastes very custardy. I have seen recipes all over the net that omit milk in all of its various forms. I have a feeling that a recipe that simply uses water and rice would be way too thin. What do you think?
ReplyDeletewhen one removes the rice and cinnamon from the bowl and puts it in the blender, is that with or without the water it was soaked in?
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