Simple and Delicious Homemade Horchata Recipe

Check our our Patreon!   / loveyourfood   Need a kitchen thermometer? Check out ChefsTemp! Use code LoveYourFood for 15% off a meat thermometer! https://shareasale.com/u.cfm?d=100320... This traditional beverage is made in different ways across the Spanish-speaking world. While in Spain it is made using tiger nuts, Mexican horchata is basically rice-milk or rice-almond-milk, fortified with a bit of actual milk or cream. For those who wish to avoid dairy, it may be omitted though one might wish to use more rice and/or almond in order to ensure that the resulting beverage has the full-bodied mouth-feel of milk. Alternatively, coconut milk and/or cream may be used in place of animal-derived dairy products. In order to make perfectly smooth horchata, one might like to use a nut-milk bag and/or layered cheesecloth in order to ensure that all the small particles are filtered out. In practice I find that they fall to the bottom of the glass and aren’t much of a problem, so a fine metal strainer will be sufficient to strain the blended mixture. Nothing in this recipe ever gets cooked. We soak and puree rice, and then add dairy, leading to a final mixture which has quite a short shelf-life compared with milk that’s still in its original container. Horchata should probably only be held in the fridge for up to the third day after it is made, to ensure it stays fresh. Makes roughly one quart. Equipment:  quart jar or other container (or bowl) for soaking rice in the fridge overnight  regular blender or high-powered immersion blender  fine sieve and/or nut-milk bag Ingredients: 1/2 cup rice uncooked, rinsed 1/4 cup slivered almonds optional; optionally toasted 3 cup water 1 1/2 cup milk or alternative milk 6 oz evaporated milk or 1/4 cup of heavy cream, or coconut cream 1/4 - 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla 1 tsp cinnamon or stick of Mexican (Ceylon) cinnamon Procedure: 1. Rinse the rice thoroughly until the water runs clear. 2. Optionally, toast the almonds while rinsing the rice. 3. Place the rinsed rice, the optional almonds, and the Mexican cinnamon stick (or 1 tsp of ground cinnamon) into the soaking vessel and cover with 1 1/2 cups of the water. 4. Soak the rice mixture overnight in the refrigerator. 5. Optionally, to increase the sweetness of the sugar, scald the milk with the sugar to dissolve and invert it, and then chill the sweetened milk overnight as well. 6. Once the rice has soaked, use a high-powered blender to reduce all the ingredients to a smooth liquid. It may take some time in the blender to break everything up as much as it will. 7. Filter the blended mixture through a fine sieve to remove as many particles as possible. 8. Add the milk, evaporated milk or cream, sugar, vanilla and the second half of the water (1 1/2 cup more). 9. Mix thoroughly to ensure the resulting beverage is as homogeneous as possible. 10. Keep under refrigeration. 11. Serve over ice with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Music: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-...