Q: I spent my college years in southern California and formed a strong affection for Mexican horchata. It's such a great summer refreshment, and if my boyfriend had his way, we would go through a large pitcher every weekend. I have found mixes here on the east coast that produce a tasty drink, but they are prohibitively expensive. I would make it from scratch, but it would be an obnoxious amount of work to make the volume we want to drink.
Do any readers have suggestions for a recipe for homemade instant horchata mix? I'm planning to try some variations on the ingredients listed on the storebought mix (sugar, milk powder, rice flour, cinnamon, guar gum) but I would love to hear if anyone has had success with this.
Sent by Mary
Editor: This is a great question, Mary. I've never made instant horchata mix myself, but maybe one of the readers has? Has anyone tried anything like this? Any advice?
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Comments (11)
A cop-out to the question, I know, but making it at home is really easy. Soak equal parts rice and slivered almonds in water with a couple cinnamon sticks for 6 to 12 hours, then blend until milky and strain through cheese cloth.
Perhaps a blend of sweet rice flour and almond meal? I still imagine some straining will be involved.
never taken a stab at an instant mix. version i make at home is dairy-free - rice and cinnamon soaked in water overnight with sugar added in the blending stage. you could probably make a large batch of the pulp and freeze in portions for diluting in water? never tried it personally but it sounds feasible...
check out this link:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ingrid-hoffmann/horchata-recipe/index.html
I grew up in so cal and my family definitely knows how to make horchata from scratch but....my sister doesn't and she made this for a bbq and it was really really good. Not 100% the same but close enough and the time it takes to make is not bad at all.
I grew up in Mexico; my family always made a super easy horchata with:
rice flour (or soak the rice overnight if you have time)
condensed milk
water
powdered cinnamon
Can't really tell you the amounts though, as with all my home (Mexican) cooking, I just know how much to add...
If I can't make horchata I usually go for Rice Dream - I prefer plain with cinnamon and a little sweetener. But they also have a horchata version that I haven't tried yet - http://www.tastethedream.com/products/product/1480.php. I get mine cheap from Trader Joe's and they keep for a while - don't have to refrigerate unless opened
Found this by googling instant homemade horchata mix...
http://en.petitchef.com/recipes/homemade-horchata-mexican-rice-drink-mix-fid-671055
I wonder if you could make and strain the rice-almond mixture, freeze it in ice cube trays, and then blend a few cubes with milk when you want it?
I live in Mexico and we simply blend water soaked rice (for less than an hour) with some evaporated milk and then add cinnamon.
There are a lot of variations, you can of course soak the rice longer, infuse the water with spices, etc. But this is the easy way and it is super tasty and easy to control the ingredients cause there are so few of them.
Horchata syrups and concentrates are quite popular in Mexico, since, well... Horchata is quite popular. I am sure that Jarabes Tucan exports horchata concentrates, so it would be simple to search for those, I imagine. But then... having some rice fluor makes for a perfect instant substitute. Just mix in a blender some rice fluor, sugar, cinnamon, milk if you want with water and that is it. I would use like 1 cup of fluor for a half gallon of water, but then, you can adjust that at your own preference.
I love horchata too and I never knew you could make it, but I drink rice milk as a substitute. Why not go to Santana's or whatever your fave taqueria is and ask if they can fill up a pitcher for you.
OP here! Thanks to everyone for the great advice!
robienne1, despite all my googling I never came across that gem. Definitely going to give that a try. I also love the idea of making a concentrate from scratch and freezing it, especially because that would let me make it more traditionally and dairy-free. Time to experiment!!!