Agua Fresca 18. Venezuelan Horchata de Ajonjolí (Sesame)
Mariana Gómez, an anthropologist/sociologist wh teaches at the University of Zulia in Venezuela, sent me this letter in which she describes Venezuelan horchata. This version is made from sesame seeds. (She also described some other aguas, but I’ll keep those for another post).
It’s interesting to see that Venezuelan chicha is what Mexicans would call horchata and not the various kinds of maize chicha found in other parts of Central and South America.
The ubiquity and variety of drinks called horchata leads one has to conclude that the Spanish were really homesick for their horchata when they arrived in the Americas. I would have thought that there would have been places where chufa would grow. Perhaps not. Another little mystery.
Anyway, over to Mariana.
“In Venezuela, horchata is a traditional beverage, along with Chicha which is more popular (there are several versions of chicha, but the most common is chicha de arroz, made with rice or rice flour, milk, sugar and seasoned with cinnamon).
I live in Maracaibo, a large city, and I remember that being a child, my mother took us to a famous place to have “cepillados” (shaved ice cones), and there also they sold chicha and horchata, this last being sold only in few places. My mother always asked for horchata. I tasted it, but since the flavor is a little bitter, I didn’t like it.
As a grown up, and as with coffee, I learned to appreciate its flavor and now I really love its fragance and untuosity and find it very refreshing in our very hot wheather. Happily, nowadays’ boom of “light” and “healthy” food has made horchata to be popularized, so there are many street vendors who sell “integral” (whole) food (like whole-wheat pastry empanadas), who are offering horchata among other “natural” beverages. (by the way, this is a very recent trend in street-food vending in Maracaibo).
HORCHATA RECIPE (not really sure about proportions because we use to make it “al ojo por ciento”. I can get exact proportions for you afterwards. Anyway it’s a matter of taste. If you prefer a stronger flavor, add more sesame seeds or less water)
1/2 cup of sesame seeds
1.5 lt. of water
sugar or raw cane sugar (in Venezuela we call it “papelón” or “panela” is like the “piloncillo”) at taste.
If using papelón, you can either grind it by hand, “shave” it with a knife, or you can make a syrup by placing it in a pan (of a size just to fit the papelón), adding water just until covering it, and placin it in low heat until the papelón melts.
Slightly toast the sesame seeds, allow to cool
Put the seeds in a blender with a small quantity (1 cup or so) of water. High-speed grind them.
Add the rest of the water and the sweet.
straw it fith a fine straw or a cloth. press to get all the liquid possible
serve cold
(The remaining pulp can be added to breads, pancakes or arepas, it’s a great source of fiber and protein).”
- Agua Fresca 17: Agua de Horchata de Semillas de Melón
- Stuffed Cyclamen and Bread and Oil: Mediterranean Island Links
I guess that some of these drinks could be hybrids, rather then specific Spanish origin drinks. Some of the grain/nut/seed drinks are similar enough to atolle (sp?). If consider it the historical chocolate recipes fits this model as well.
For that matter does anybody make chocolate in this manner (ground, mixed flavors, sometimes maize flour, added to water and foamed) anymore?
Raises the question if the Salvadoran drink is Spanish or local origin, irrespective of the name? Any other examples that use New World nuts/grains/seeds etc?
The big difference between atoles and aguas frescas is that the former are always hot to the best of my knowledge and the latter are by definition cooling. Atoles are thicker too, gruels in fact.
I agree about the overlap of ingredients though. And as to making chocolate, it’s still very common to make chocolate from metate-ground chocolate with sugar added and foamed (often unromantically in the blender). I’ve not seen the more piquant flavors in our part of Mexico. And champurrado (chocolate with maize flour) remains very common. Wonderful for breakfast on a chilly morning.
But maybe it’s the more piquant spices you are talking about as flavors.
Most of of the early accounts of Chocolate drinking in Mexico I have seen don’t seem to mention that it is heated, although maybe this is just assumed.
Here is Stubbe’s account of Indian chocolate:
“It is clear, that the Indian ordinary Chocolata was made of the Cacao nut, and meal of Indian wheat, and water and Pocholt, and now and then some Pepper called Chille, which was put in, more or less, according to the necessity of the Patient’s Stomach, or other circumstances: So that they made divers sorts of it, some hot, some cold, some temperate, and put therein much Chili, or Chille. So saith Acosta……..”
From this it isn’t clear if the heat is temperature or chili heat, but there are a couple of other accounts of it being served at room temp and it seems that maize was a common additive?
No, Adam, you are right. I’m not thinking straight. I think the general assumption is that pre-hispanic chocolate was taken cold. I think they would be referring to piquancy here. Why oh why doesn’t English have the piquant/hot distinction that is so clear in Mexican Spanish at any rate? I am not a chocolate expert. But I think that the Spanish wanted to do down the traditional chocolate drinking habits.
I know what you mean, the use of “spicy” to mean hot doesn’t help either.
In Scotland people refer to something piquant as “gingery” and a local Tuscan dialect word for a type of chilli is “ginger”, so lots of languages seem to be notably poor with dealing with the piquancy thing.
Rachel,
Thanks for all your insight, I wonder what kind of sesame seeds are used, the hulled or un-hulled.. (white or brown).We use the latter in Mexico. And BTW I have had delicious cold and refreshing atoles. I remember one in Papantla Veracruz called atole morado (purple corn drink)
Hi Iliana. I don’t have any idea whether they use hulled or un-hulled, sorry. I would suspect unhulled as in Mexico. Are you saying that sesame seeds are used to make horchata or other aguas frescas in Mexico?
Cold atoles sound almost more appealing than hot ones. I’ll look out for them.
pregunta: debes de tostar la semilla del ajonjoli antes de hacer la horchata?
Si, Diana, hay que tostar ligeramente las semillas.