Mexi-cooking: Horchata

I use the term "cooking" very loosely, because no actual cooking was required in making one of my favourite Mexican drinks! Horchata is an agua fresca (cool or fresh water), which is a very popular drink here to cool you down on the sweltering hot days. Agua fresca is water flavoured with whatever your heart so wishes: fruit, hibiscus flower, or like horchata for example, rice milk flavoured with vanilla and cinnamon. Delicious! I decided to try and make this drink because it's something that I will miss when I'm back in England and luckily found it was super easy to make. I followed this recipe, but adjusted it a little to suit my gallstones and lactose intolerant body!

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked white long grain rice
• 5 cups of water
• 1 cup of almond milk
• 1/2  tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 1/2 tablespoon of ground cinnamon 
• 1/2 cup of white sugar

Method

1. Put the rice and water into a blender and blend for approximately one minute, until the rice is in small pieces.  
2. Leave the rice and water to stand at room temperature for three hours.
3. Strain the rice water into a jug, discard the rice. 
4. Stir in the almond milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon and sugar.
5. Chill and enjoy!  

So easy!  A simple, delicious and refreshing drink for balmy summer days.  You can also add strawberries to give it a fruity twist or coconut milk instead of almond milk for a tropical treat.  One less thing for me to miss when I'm freezing back in England!

(Apologies for rubbishy photos... Mexican kitchen doesn't make for pretty backgrounds)