Horchata

Horchata, pronounced or-cha-ta, is a traditional Mexican drink made with ground rice. It has a cool, milky, white texture with a sweet side and a burst of cinnamon. Because of the spicy and firey flavors of Mexican food, it's a popular choice to soothe your tongue. Spain also makes an horchata, but I believe it's with ground nuts. I saw Andrew Zimmern try it once on Bizarre Foods and he said it was disgusting, so I'll stick with the rice version!

I never had horchata, or even heard of it, before moving in with Johnny. His ex-wife was Mexican and her culture introduced him to it, and now he can't order Mexican food out without getting horchata. I tried a sip of his once, and while it's a bit of a surprise at first, you really will fall in love with it. Sometimes we order from our favorite Mexican place not for the food, but to have an excuse to get large, milky glasses of horchata!!

Down in the basement I found an old cookbook, presumably from Johnny's married life, entitled Mexican Cooking for Dummies. I made horchata from their recipe once before, but it was very pricey. It used 1 quart of milk and 4 cinnamon sticks for only 3 quarts of drink.

In the latest issue of Food Network magazine, chef Aaron Sanchez shares his recipe for horchata and I saw it was entirely different than the Dummies recipe, so decided to give it a go so we could compare.

Sanchez' Horchata recipe:

1 cup long-grain white rice, rinsed
1 cinnamon stick, preferably Mexican cinnamon canela
1/2 cup sugar, or to taste
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon for garnish, optional

Combine the rice and cinnamon stick with 4 cups water in a blender; pulse to coarsely grind. Transfer to a large bowl and add another 4 cups water; soak at room temperature for 3 hours.

Puree the rice mixture in a blender in batches until smooth. Strain through cheesecloth or a fine sieve into a pitcher. Mix in the sugar; chill.

Stir the horchata well before serving. Pour into ice-filled glasses; garnish with a dusting of ground cinnamon if wanted.

Preparation-wise the Dummies recipe blows this one out of the water. Nutrition and price-wise I prefer the Sanchez recipe. Both have pretty great tastes, but I kind of prefer the lighter, crisper version of Sanchez', versus the thicker, milkier Dummies one.

Having made, and tasted, both of these recipes I'm going to combine the positives of both in the future. The Dummies version has you grind the dry rice on it's own until it's a fine powder, then mix with the liquids and let it sit. This was easier than all of that soaking and blending time. The Sanchez version uses only one pricey cinammon stick and saves you the extra fat, calories, and cost of using a full quart of milk. So, in the future I'll grind the rice and cinnamon stick first, let soak, and then discard the sediments - no blending, no milk, no extra cinnamon sticks.

If you're not ready to jump into making horchata at home, I highly recommend ordering it the next time you go out to get Mexican or buying a carton (usually sold by the soy milk) to try it! You'll be surprised!