"ATW80DS" - Horchata (Chilian Recipe)

Horchata, also known as orxata or "rice water", is a refreshing, yummy, sweet Spanish drink made with rice, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and sometimes almonds. It is a great off set for the spicy foods and is very popular in Latin America and Spain. Other versions can be made of almonds, barley, herbs or tigernuts. The following recipe will make 6 cups. I have a friend and her husband grew up in brazil, she was telling me that his grandma use to make horchata and sometimes she would take all the rice stuff leftover after straining and cook it in milk and they would eat it like we do oatmeal. So we thought we would give it a try. Then as usual, here at the pantry we like to play, so we thought it might make a good pudding, kind of like rice pudding, so we took our Horchata mixture and added 2 eggs, blended well and cooked it over medium heat until thick. We served it chilled with whipped cream and sprinkles...  ( Photo below) It was actually pretty good, had the texture of grits but tasted like rice pudding. 

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup uncooked white long-grain rice 1/2 cup sliced almonds 4 cups warm water 2 cups milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2/3 cup white sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS: 1. Pour the rice, almonds and water into a blender; blend until the rice just begins to break up, about 1 minute. Let rice mixture stand at room temperature for a minimum of 3 hours. 2. Strain the rice water into a pitcher and discard the rice. Stir the milk, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and sugar into the rice water. Chill and stir before serving over ice.