Agua Fresca 9: Horchata, the Mexican Rice Version
I’m going to edge into horchata by beginning with the Mexican rice version. Even in Mexico, horchata, originally a barley water, can be made with almonds, oatmeal, melon seeds, and coconut as well as with rice, or even without any of these at all. In Spain, it is glorious made with chufa “nuts” but all these are to come.
I’m beginning here because although horchata is one of my favorite agua frescas, it’s not one I ever seem to make really well at home. So I thought I’d try four different versions. Here are the results.
From left to right:
1. An horchata made with boiled rice
2. An horchata made with soaked raw rice, the commonest method I believe
3. An horchata made with rice flour
4. An horchata made with a commercial mix
To make the first horchata of boiled rice, I used the recipe in Melissa Guerra’s wonderful book Dishes from the Wild Horse Dessert. Melissa’s family and her husband’s too have ranched along the Rio Grande for centuries, they have family ties both sides of the border, are bilingual, and they know and love their culinary traditions.
For 2 quarts of horchata, Melissa suggests boiling 1/2 cup rice and a stick of cinnamon for half an hour in 2 quarts water.
Remove the cinnamon stick and blend adding extra water to make up for what has boiled away, and then add sugar to taste (between 1/2 and a full cup).
To make the second horchata of soaked rice, I took the recipe from Josefina Velázquez de Leon‘s Cocina Oaxaqueña (1984). Josefina Velázquez, as many of you may know, is worth of a post all on her own. From a distinguished family and widowed after a year of marriage, from the 1940s, she taught Mexican cooking to young ladies and published literally dozens of cookbooks under her own imprint. They remain a fundamental resource for Mexican cuisine.
For quart, she suggest soaking 1/4 lb of rice overnight, blending it with a small strip of cinnamon, sieving it through a cloth, and adding half a pound of sugar.
Here’s the soaked rice in the blender.
And here it is whirling away.
To make the third of ground rice, I followed the instructions on a box of rice flour that suggested blending a cup of milk with a tablespoon of rice flour and cinnamon and then adding water to make a liter.
Here is the happy illustration.
Finally for the fourth, I just used a commercial mix, adding one part of the mix to six parts of water and stirring. It took a few seconds to get the thick mixture of sugar, rice, cinnamon, and vanilla to blend with the water.
Results
The horchata made with commercial mix tasted fairly strongly of vanilla. If you like vanilla, you might find this satisfactory but it’s not my favorite flavor. The horchata made with ground rice was a lovely white color but that was due to the milk because the rice did not stay suspended in the mix at all. It tasted strongly of milk. Again perhaps fine if you like drinking milk.
The soaked rice produced as it always does a horchata that tended to separate and that needed to be stirred. When stirred it is an appealing white color and has a faint chalky taste and texture which I happen to find appealing.
The boiled rice also tended to separate and was more greyish than bright white. It tasted good though and I would happily alternate these last two methods.
Nice blonde and blue eyed child on the packet?
Rachel,
I am sure that there are many, many ways to make horchata. I really like the Irapuato style horchata that my mother-in-law Carmelita makes for me so I am going to give you the recipe in case you would like to try it. You start out with three liters of hot water and into it you put about ten tablespoons of rice and let it soak for about 15 minutes. Then you put the water with the rice in a blender with one stick of Mexican cinnamon and give it a good long ride. Then you strain it through a cloth lined colander into a pot that will hold about 5 liters. Then you add one small can of “Lechera” and one small can of Carnation evaporated milk. After that you throw in a big bunch of ice cubes and when it is good and cold you drink it. I have never tasted any better than Carmelita’s horchata.
What did she do with the left over rice. I’m just wondering while this sounds like a very original recipe and I doubt that they would throw away perfectly good rice.
Blond? Blue eyed? But of course. All the ads and most of the female TV announcers are that way.
Bob, from the heartland again. I specially like the “give it a good long ride.” I’ve changed my blender technique completely in Mexico. None of this tentative pulsing. Turn it on and let it run full blast for several minutes. I think the addition of canned milk is probably widespread. Where would Mexican cuisine be without condensed milk (La Lechera, the milkmaid) and Carnation or Clavel (evaporated milk). Let’s wait and see when Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless start giving these recipes!
Which did you like most??? Which of your attempts produced the more authentic flavor?? Please tell.
Hi Sally, welcome to this blog. Good question. None of them tasted like horchata made from chufa if that is what you mean by authentic. Of the rice versions, I tend to like the less-cooked rice ones better, partly because I relish that gritty taste. But I have friends who hate it. And since tastes differ so from one person to another, I’m not sure I want to vote for one in particular.
I recently made horchata using rice that I ground. In several batches, I ground a total of 1 cup of rice in a spice grinder. I also ground between 1/4- and 1/2-cup of almonds and a stick of cinnamon. After stirring the rice, almonds, and cinnamon together, I added approximately 6 cups of water. I let the mixture sit overnight.
The next morning, I put some of the mixture into the blender and tried to strain it. It was a pain and I didn’t have much time, so I put the blended bit back in with the rest. That afternoon (approximately 20 hours after beginning), I tried straining through a coffee filter. It was nearly impossible. Because the rice had been so finely ground, I actually found it easier to stir the whole mixture and let it sit between 30 seconds and 3 minutes and just pour into another container all but the sediment. It worked really well. It still tasted a little chalky, which I love too. It was fine without sugar, but I don’t care for overly sweet things anyhow.
To me, horchata shouldn’t have milk or truly cooked rice and should have somewhat of a chalky (but not gritty) taste. Some of the ones I’ve purchased here in stores both here in the U.S. as well as in Mexico likely had milk in them, but it’s usually not overly obvious. Definitely one of my favorite drinks. Glad to know I’m not the only one.
i have cataracts so maybe i didnt see it but where are the results using the rice flour
They’re there if you just plow through the post. It’s made with milk and tastes more like milk than like horchata.