Horchata, and a Deadline Extension for the Garlic Event
Many of you are probably familiar with the horchata you can buy at Burritoville, a pale, dairy imitation of the real thing made with fat-free milk, rice powder, cinnamon, and sugar. It’s potable, but doesn’t even begin to compare with horchata made with actual rice and almonds, cinnamon and vanilla, with no milk in sight.
Horchata is a sweet, creamy beverage that I love to drink when eating spicy foods. When Dave first tried it at a nearby Oaxacan restaurant a few weeks ago, he went on a horchata-making binge. And y’know what? I am totally okay with this!
In other news, I’m extending the deadline for Yes, Of Course You Can Pair Garlic With That! a week until next Monday, October 15, 2007 – a lot of people wrote in and said that they’d just run out of time, and honestly, I’m too busy to post the round-up this week, anyway.
Please take advantage of this extra week to get me some more wonderfully creative garlic pairing recipes!
Horchata
(adapted from Josh Friedland’s recipe, which was adapted from Gale Gand)
1 C basmati rice
2 C blanched, peeled almonds
4″ piece of cinnamon
5 C water
3/8 C sugar
2 vanilla beans
Grind the rice into a fine powder using a coffee grinder. Place the ground rice, almond, and cinnamon into a large bowl with 3 1/2 C water. Cut the vanilla beans in half the long way, scrape the seeds into the bowl, and then throw the beans in after them. Cover and leave overnight.
The next day, add the sugar and 1 1/2 C water. Puree everything in your blender, then strain. The best tool we’ve found for straining is a Thai tea sock, which is basically a fine cotton mesh on a metal ring with a handle. Serve chilled.
Oh, how fabulous! Finally, a horchata recipe!
BTW: Was it the Oaxacan place I blogged about a little while back?
I have an entire cookbook of Oaxacan food. We should get together and make the mole negro tamales. I made them with pork and some with plantain and they were to die for. Maybe once my Mexican Chocolate Stout is brewed up. I can’t imagine a better kind of afternoon :)
I think I read somewhere that “real” horchata is made with candlenuts. I wonder what the mass-distributed stuff you can get in every Mexican dive in soCal is made of…
I love Horchata but have never actually made it myself and it looks easy enough that I might try it.
Good to see you extended the deadline! I actually have had an idea floating around for a while now but have been out of town for a few weeks.
The horchata sounds fabulous! I’ve frustratedly wisdhed for the real thing too many times. Do you cut up the cinnamon and almond at all? And would this work with rice flour, or is it being fresh ground important?
Whew — I saw the headline and thought, is she making garlic horchata???? So glad you are not — horchata is one of the great ways to enjoy some sweetness!
The real horchata is made of tiger nuts! And it is so delicious! It is the best drink for a hot summer.
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[...] Habeas Brûlée – Yes, Of Course You Can Pair Garlic With That! – deadline extension [...]
Whoo hoo! I am so glad you extendend the deadline :)
I was feeling so disappointed that I missed it!
Love the horchata too-
Thanks
Nicole: yes, same place. We think that we (Danielle especially) are just not huge fans of Oaxacan food, since the food was well-executed but still mostly not to our taste. But the Horchata was spectacular — much better than ours. Probably because of the melon.
We have enjoyed molé in the past, at other places. We would love to make some with you.
feonixrift — no, we don’t cut up anything but the rice (grinding the rice is key). I don’t know if premade rice flour would work. I actually think the slight graininess of the home-ground stuff makes it easier to filter out. OTOH, I might not want to filter it out if it weren’t grainy.
Marta, do you know where to find tiger nuts in New York City? I would love to try them.
I have two horchata recipes I’m dying to try sometime soon…your post just pushed me over the edge. Maybe I’ll make it next week :)
I leave in spain and Horchata is like the nacional drink for the summer (apart from Sangria :P). Although I have no idea if horchata is spanish on its origins or from somewhere else, I am pretty sure that at least here they don’t make it with rice and almonds but with another kind of nut, called “chufa” in spanish (maybe the tiger nuts?).
Anyway, doesn’t matter, yours looks equally tasty and refreshing!!
Chufa and tigernuts are the same, apparently, and the “nut” is actually the plant’s tuber:
Cyperus esculentus (Chufa Sedge, Yellow Nutsedge, Tigernut Sedge, Earthalmond) is a species of sedge . . . .The tubers are edible, with a slightly sweet, nutty flavour, . . . .They are quite hard and are generally soaked in water before they can be eaten. They have various uses; in particular, they are used in Spain to make horchata. They are sometimes known by their Spanish name, “chufa”.
Wikipedia goes on to say that they were cultivated in ancient Egypt and introduced to Spain by the Arabs. Don’t plant them in your garden; their extensive root system makes them a pernicious weed.
The candlenut, however, is a real tree nut, similar to macadamia: “The Candlenut (Aleurites moluccana), is a tree in the family Euphorbiaceae, also known as Candleberry, Indian walnut, Kemiri, Varnish tree or Kukui nut tree.”
Just thought someone else might be interested, as I was.
My understanding is that Spanish and Mexican horchata are almost totally different beverages. I’d love to try the Spanish kind sometime though.
This looks great! Btw, I somehow only just started reading your blog and think it’s lovely. I recently started a blog of my own and am going to add you to my blogroll :). Perhaps someday I will reach your level of competence!
OK, so I went to Despana, a spanish foods store. They had chufa — they make horchata with it — but they would not sell them to me. Bastards.
I can’t wait to see the round up of Garlic recipes now that the deadline has passed! yum…Ill have to pick up a few heads more next weekend!