Horchata (hor - chaw - tuh): delicious creamy smooth drink made with ground rice, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and other good stuff. Usually served at your local Beto's.
I can drink a gallon at a time. When it comes to horchata, for some reason gulping seems appropriate and I don't mind the semi-sticky rice milk dribble running out the sides of my mouth and down my neck.
I want to have it so often and I googled a recipe so I could make it at home. It actually seemed pretty easy:
Ingredients
- 1 cup long grain rice, rinsed
- 2 quarts water
- 1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
- 1/2 cup white sugar
Directions
- In a large saucepan, combine rice, water and cinnamon stick. Set aside for 3 hours.
- After 3 hours, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Allow to cool.
- Puree rice mixture in a blender until smooth. Strain through cheesecloth or a fine sieve. Flavor with vanilla and sugar to taste. Chill, and serve over ice.
I followed the directions and viola! Horchata:
Okay. So, instead of creamy smooth goodness, I created a thin, weird, foamy science experiment. We poured it into glasses and stirred and chomped through soggy-rice baby food.
Gross.
Our neighbors across the street are from Mexico and have the sweetest teenage boys. Whenever I come home from grocery shopping one or all of them rush to help me bring in my groceries. One of the boys stopped by to say hello and I told him about my horchata fiasco and the very next day he brings me this:
Fresh horchata his mom made for us! We didn't want to stop drinking it to take a picture...which is why it's almost gone.
So I've decided that there are some things in life that we just can't make ourselves: horchata, really good Chinese food, apples. And not being able to make them is part of why I like them so much. I guess if I could make horchata whenever I wanted, it'd lose it's appeal.
So even my home-made-horchata-making days have ended, this story has a happy ending: I found a horchata mix.
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