'authentic' recipes

Well I'm trying to figure out why there is so much variation in recipes I find online for horchata.  It's a Mexican drink and I just learnt the 'H' is silent (according to one website anyway). Some say to soak the rice and cinnamon overnight, toss the water and blend with fresh water.  Some say to do the soaking after blending.  Which means you don't throw away any water at all I guess.

The scientific thing to do I suppose is try both recipes and see which produces the better results.

Cooking is really such a useful lifeskill isn't it?  I'm proud that you boys know your way around the kitchen a little.  I'm only good at one pot meals mostly but I am learning.  It is easier because I am quite happy to eat simply, and fresh food is happiest when you keep it simple.

Maybe I should have learned to cook instead of taking over from my mother at the mahjong table while she cooked dinner back in the day heh.  Though I wouldn't have learned that much. Her repertoire was rather limited - but whatever she cooked, it was pretty decent.

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OK I have as of this moment, decided on a combination of recipes for the horchata. Decided to blend first and soak.  We shall see the results in the morning... fingers crossed.

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More adventures in cooking...

While waiting, might as well recapture the memory of this morning when I detonated an egg in the microwave.  As with all my other microwave incidents so far, I left it unattended, much like an absent-minded parent momentarily neglecting to keep a tight leash on a toddler, while tackling something else, in this case, a peanut-butter sandwich, with disastrous consequences.

Cleaning up the bits of egg is no fun.  I am suddenly struck by the thought that something like this probably inspired Tarantino to write the scene where Travolta's character Vincent accidentally shoots someone in the head, causing an awful mess in the car that they have to clean up. Yup I felt like I was on brain detail.

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Delicious horchata made with rice, cinnamon, vanilla, sugar, milk

First I blended the rice with the cinnamon stick and water, and then put it in the fridge overnight.

First time I am dealing with this.  Had to google "What to do with vanilla pods?".  So you slice it open, and the tiny seeds are inside which you scrape off.  The pods still have flavour and one recommendation is to stick it into your sugar- that will give it a nice vanilla smell.  Next time I will try with vanilla extract.  Less troublesome.

Then put the vanilla into milk and sugar.

Strain the rice water.

Then add in the vanilla milk sugar combo.

Voila!  Horchata.  Not too bad a first effort I think.  It is however much thicker than the versions I have had in Mexican restaurants.  Maybe it's a different recipe.  I think I like mine much more...