Agua de Limón con Chía

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •2-quart glass jarra or market-style vitrolero
• •Wooden citrus squeezer
• •Fine-mesh strainer for lime seeds
• •Long-handled spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Pick the chia

   Spread the chia seeds on a plate and look them over. Remove any tiny stones or bits of husk. Good chia smells clean and faintly nutty. If it smells stale or oily in a bad way, take it back to the vendor. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.

2. 2

   Bloom the seeds

   Put the chia in a small bowl with 1 1/2 cups room-temperature water. Stir for a full minute, then let it sit for 20 minutes. Stir again after 5 minutes to break up clumps. The seeds should swell, wear a clear little halo, and suspend in the water instead of sitting dry and stubborn at the bottom.

   Do not throw dry chia straight into the sweet lime water. It will clump like wet sand, and then you will spend ten minutes chasing lumps with a spoon. Bloom it first. Así se hace y punto.
3. 3

   Dissolve the sugar

   In a 2-quart glass jarra or vitrolero, stir the cane sugar into 1 cup warm water until the grains disappear. Add the 5 1/2 cups cold water and the pinch of salt if using. The salt should not make the drink taste salty. It only sharpens the lime, especially when the jarra is going to sit outside on a hot table.

4. 4

   Juice the limes

   Roll the limones under your palm, cut them, and juice them by hand or with a wooden squeezer. Strain out seeds, but do not worry about a little pulp. Add 3/4 cup fresh juice to the sweetened water. Taste before the chia goes in. It should hit sour first, then sweet. In Mexico, limón means the small green lime. Yellow lemon makes another drink.

   Bottled lime juice is dead juice. No me vengas con atajos. If the limones at the market are dry and hard, make agua de jamaica today and come back to this when the fruit is good.
5. 5

   Stir in chia

   Pour the bloomed chia, gel and all, into the lime water. Stir from the bottom for 30 seconds so the seeds move through the whole jarra. Let the agua rest 5 minutes, then stir again. The seeds should float and drift, not form a black layer at the bottom. This is the small discipline the señoras at the mercado understand.

6. 6

   Serve very cold

   Add ice to glasses, not too much to the jarra unless you are serving immediately. Pour the agua and stir the jarra between servings because chia settles. That is not failure. That is water, seed, and gravity doing their work. Add thin lime rounds if you want the table to see what they are drinking. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buy limones that feel heavy for their size and have thin, glossy skin. Dry, hard limes give you bitterness and almost no juice. The market tells you what to cook, or in this case, what to drink.
• •If you cannot find limón criollo or Mexican limes, Persian limes are a compromise. Use them, but taste carefully because they are softer and less perfumed. Yellow lemons make a different drink.
• •Chia turns rancid when it sits too long in a warm bulk bin. Ask the señora at the market which sack is newest. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.
• •Cane sugar is the cleanest sweetener here. Piloncillo is good, but it will darken the agua and give it a molasses flavor. That is not wrong. It is another version.
• •Do not rim the glass with chile powder for this recipe. This is agua de limón con chía, not a snack-stall candy drink. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Advance Preparation

• •The chia can be bloomed up to 24 hours ahead and held covered in the refrigerator. Stir before using because the gel thickens as it sits.
• •The sugar water can be made one day ahead and chilled. Juice the limones the day you serve the agua, preferably within 2 hours of mixing.
• •Finished agua de limón con chía is best the same day. After 6 hours, the lime flavor starts to flatten, though the drink is still safe if kept cold.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 280g)