Mexican Horchata

"If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance."

- Bern Williams

The weather right now in Western Washington is just perfect. Sunny with a slight breeze. Heaven. In the warm weather you need more refreshing, delicious things to drink, in my opinion. I enjoyed my watermelon cocktail last weekend so much, I wanted to make something else special to drink.

Since my watermelon cocktail was similar to an agua fresca with some booze added, I had Mexico on my mind. So here's another hispanic drink. Mexican Horchata is a creamy, sweet, rice drink flavored with cinnamon.

Wiki tells me  it's made different ways in different countries. Sesame seeds in Puerto Rico, for instance. In El Salvador it's made with Morro seeds, not rice.

Another interesting tidbit from Wiki is, some Hispanic bars in Southern California use horchata as a mixer in a cocktail known as a "Rice Rocket." The drink is made of two parts horchata, one part coconut-flavored rum, and a dash of Goldschläger over ice. I grew up in Southern Cal, went to plenty of bars, and I never knew that. Sounds delicious. You learn something new everyday.

Seattle from the freeway

For today's totally off topic photo, is a picture of Seattle I took from the freeway, while driving (bad, I know) home from seeing the documentary I AM. Such a great movie. That was the second time I had seen it. If it's playing in your area, and it speaks to you, go see it. You won't be disappointed.
(Just don't go alone and take pictures through your car window while driving.)




Mexican Horchata

this makes about 4 tall glasses

Ingredients

1 cup (185 g.) uncooked white rice

3 sticks cinnamon (mine were about 4 inches long) (make sure they are fresh) plus longer ones for garnishing, if desired

8 1/2 cups (2 liters) water

1/2 to 1 cup (100 g.to 200 g.) sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)

2 tsp vanilla

Instructions

Rinse the rice under a fine mesh strainer. Place the rice, cinnamon sticks, and 2 cups (473 ml) of the water into a large bowl or large measuring cup with a spout (4 cup size or more) and cover.

Place in fridge and let sit for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Remove the cinnamon sticks and pour the rice/water mixture into a blender. (I used a Vitamix.) Blend well, for 3-5 minutes or so.

Strain it into a pitcher. Then put the rice/water mixture back into the blender container and add the remaining 6 1/2 cups of water. Add the vanilla then add the sugar. If you don't like things too sweet, add 1/2 cup (100 g.) of the sugar first,  then taste it and see if you want more. If you want it sweeter, add the remaining sugar and blend well again.

Chill, stir, and serve. Over ice is nice too.

Garnish with a cinnamon stick if you want.