Last week's post on aguas frescas gave us a mean craving for Mexican-style horchata, a refreshing drink made with rice, cinnamon, and sugar. We decided to try making a batch at home and wound up making three, each with a different type of rice...
In Spain, where horchata originated, the beverage is made with chufas, or tigernuts. Cooks throughout Latin America often use rice or morro, jicara, or sesame seeds. Other typical ingredients include water, milk, almonds, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and lime. With or without dairy, the drink is incredibly creamy, cool, and thirst-quenching.
Most recipes for Mexican-style horchata call for generic long grain white rice. The only long grain white rice we had in the pantry was Indian Basmati, and though we found some horchata recipes listing Basmati, we also read online comments warning against it. This piqued our curiosity, and we decided to give the Basmati a chance. We also picked up some regular long grain white rice at a Mexican market and thought we'd give the long grain brown rice in our pantry a try, too.
We made each batch with rice, almonds, a cinnamon stick, and water. After refrigerating the mixtures overnight, we blended each with agave nectar, strained, poured them over ice, and put them to the taste test.
The verdicts:
• Long grain white rice – This had the most authentic flavor (i.e., similar to the horchata we've had from Mexican restaurants and street vendors). The rice flavor was mostly neutral, letting the cinnamon shine through, but it was slightly chalky.
• Basmati rice – Basmati had the strongest, most aromatic and "rice-y" flavor. One of us kept changing her mind about whether she liked it, while the other considered it his favorite of the three.
• Long grain brown rice – As expected, this had a distinctly nutty flavor. Even though it didn't taste exactly "authentic," it was this writer's favorite version.
None of them were bad, and if you had only one type of rice on hand and didn't want to buy another just to make horchata, we'd recommend you go for it. This wasn't a rigorous test, of course, and other factors such as quality of rice could make a difference. But it was a fun – and refreshing! – experiment, and we're already plotting another round with Jasmine rice, short grain, black rice...
Here's the recipe we used (substituting agave for sugar):
• Horchata De Almendra, from Rick Bayless
Related: Farmers' Market Inspiration: Aguas Frescas
(Images: Emily Ho and Gregory Han)
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I am making this tonight! I love horchata and haven't had it in years since my sugar cane allergy diagnosis. Agave, check. Rice, check. Almonds, check. Cinammon, check.
Would mixing rice and almond milk from the store achieve the same flavor? Ground almonds are loaded with rich fats.
I love horchata when I'm out on the west coast but I've never had good horchata around
Boston. I'm going to try making it at home, I had no idea it was so easy. The stuff I've had around here tastes like it came from a mix.
Rice?!?! Why would you use rice?
Chufa is the way to go.
I LOVE horchata, so thanks for posting this recipe and trying out the different rices.
I also wanted to say that I really like that napkin/place with the cutlery on it that you have those rice jars on. It's super cute! Where did you get it?
I cheat and add ground cinnamon and a bit of sugar to rice milk; I rarely think far enough in advance to make horchata from scratch.
That said, i really want to try making this from scratch now.
Gingercookiewithlime: Ok, so what *is* chufa, and where do I find it? Why is it better?
@lona It wouldn't have the same texture (horchata made from scratch is slightly grainy, which we like), but the flavor would probably still be great. Let us know if you try it! You can also make horchata without almonds; here's one recipe.
@coppertone Thanks! We got that dishtowel at Kmart years ago.
I made this, and it's easy and delicious. I just drank a glass for breakfast. It's a bit extravagant with all that sugar & almonds, but as an occasional treat, hurray!
Here's my question. Does anyone have any ideas about the "leavings," i.e. the ground up nuts, cinnamon & rice that don't strain through? It seems like it ought to make a great pudding or even torte of some kind. I was wondering if anyone knew of any standard way of using the stuff. I can compost it, but I try to use up all the bits and pieces left over in a case like this.
Rice Dream makes a horchata that I love. I can't wait to make some of my own and see how the Rice Dream version compares. Yum!
I'm now going to answer my own question about horchata "leftovers". I spread out the ground leftovers on a cookie sheet and baked them at 350 for about 1/2 hour. It makes a nice tender thin bar, with a great chewy/crunchy edge. I could have added a few beaten egg whites and made more of a torte, but I think I'm happy with the cookie form. I won't make horchata often because it's so extravagant, but good to know nothing goes to waste! (BTW, I used brown rice)
Rick's recipe says to use hot tap water. Definitely not a good idea. Hot tap water can leach lead from the pipes or have other impurities that cold water does not have. Better to warm up the water a bit it a teapot or something. That said, I have his cookbook and I'm going to try this recipe sometime...