Horchata - Experiment #1

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Horchata

I didn't really "discover" Mexican food until last year, despite living in LA for so long. Now, I'm always looking for new places to go, new taco and mole to try. Slowly, I'm building my Spanish food vocabulary. At least, now I know what a fajita or taquito is.

Last week, when I was in San Francisco, and went to this amazing Mexican vegan restaurant, Gracias Madre in the Mission district. The horchata was probably the BEST I've had so far. It had a nice balance of creaminess from the rice milk and spiciness from the cinnamon. Not to mention, it wasn't overly sweet either. Normally, the horchata that I get is just over-powered by sugar, and the drink is super cinnamony. As a result, they are normally served on ice. Not that one from Gracias Madre, it was just simply poured into the glass, and voila, I can't stop drinking.

So I thought, how hard can it be? It's supposed to be just a rice drink. There must be some recipes online that I can google and try out. Yup, in the age of google rules, there are definitely plenty. They're quite different though, some calls for almonds while other calls for grinding the rice.

The common theme of all these interesting recipe? Horchata is really easy to make! So here I am, embarking on yet another kitchen experiment.

Horchata Experiment #1, I used the recipe from David Lebovitz. The version on David Lebovitz's website is non-dairy and also pretty detailed. He shared some of his observations during his experiment, which I find very useful (because yes, I would do exactly what he did and make a huge mess in the kitchen).

I made this recipe 2 ways, one soaking the rice whole (because that's what I saw a lot of the other recipes do), and the other one following the recipe exactly. I figured, it'd be great if I can skip a step. =p The result? It's really not THAT different, especially rice milk is added in the end to make up the difference. However, grinding rice before soaking does make filtering in the end a lot easier. So, I'd say, if you feel like being lazy, by all means, go for it!

Rice before grinding
After grinding

Horchata (Experiment #1)
recipe adapted from David Lebovitz
Yield: ~1 Qt

Ingredients:
  • 2/3 cup of white rice, do not wash (I used sushi rice, another thing I'll experiment on)
  • 3 cup of water
  • 1 stick of cinnamon (~3" long)
  • Agave nectar (agave syrup)
  • Unsweetened rice milk (store bought) 
  1. In a blender/spice grinder/food processor, grind the rice. You're looking for a coarse coffee grind type of consistency.

    One thing I find it very useful in grinding, is to always do it in pulse. After every pulse, shake up the solids so that the bigger pieces can have a chance to get close to the blades. This way, you won't end up with a wide variety of grind size, where some are extra fine and others are still very big pieces.

    Note: If you want to be lazy, you can skip this step. Just measure out the rice and proceed to the next step.

  2. Measure out 3 cup of water in a microwavable container. Microwave on HIGH until liquid is very hot. (Obviously, you can do this stove top as well)

  3. Transfer the rice (grind or whole) into a container, and pour the hot water over. Add the cinnamon stick and cover the container. Leave it on counter top till it has cooled back down to room temperature, then put it in fridge and store overnight.

  4. (8+ hours later.....mine actually was 24hr later) Pluck out the cinnamon stick, and using a blender, puree the rice/water mixture. Try to get the mixture as smooth as possible, so that the drink won't taste grainy later on.

  5. Line a sieve with double layers (minimum) of cheesecloth and strain the liquid mixture. Squeeze out the liquid at the end, while making sure none of the solids got passed through.

  6. Stir in the unsweetened rice milk (until the drink is creamy enough for your taste) and Agave nectar (for sweetness). Refrigerate and serve chilled.

    Note: I left out the actual amount of rice milk and sweetener, because I think it really depends on the individual taste. Personally I don't like my drinks too sweet nor too creamy, so I like them to be on the lighter end of the spectrum. For this recipe, I added about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of rice milk, and used about 2 Tbsp of Agave nectar. I then serve drink with Agave bottle on the side, so that people can add more if they want.

    Note: Obviously, feel free to use simple syrup (I would not recommend sugar, since it'd take forever to dissolve), or other type of sweetener. I'm just trying to be healthy and stick to natural, low calories sweetener.
Soaking happily away
A close up!

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