Curado de Avena Hidalguense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Dry comal or heavy skillet for toasting oats
• •Small clay cazuela or saucepan for piloncillo syrup
• •Blender
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Clay pitcher or thick glass jar for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the oats

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Add the oats and stir for 4 to 5 minutes, until they smell nutty and turn pale gold at the edges. Do not brown them hard. Burned oats make the curado taste like old cereal. Reserve 1 tablespoon of toasted oats for serving.

2. 2

   Cook the syrup

   In a small clay cazuela or saucepan, combine the water, piloncillo, cinnamon stick, and salt. Simmer gently for 5 minutes, stirring until the piloncillo dissolves. Pull it from the heat and let it cool completely. Hot syrup does not go into pulque. Pulque is alive, and if you cook it, you kill the point of the drink.

   Use Mexican canela if you can find it. It is softer and sweeter than the hard cassia stick sold as cinnamon in many supermarkets.
3. 3

   Soften the oats

   Remove the cinnamon stick from the cooled syrup. Pour the syrup over the toasted oats and let them sit for 20 minutes, until swollen and soft. This is where the body of the curado is built. Avena needs time to drink before you drink it.

4. 4

   Blend the base

   Transfer the soaked oats and syrup to a blender. Add the cold whole milk and the Mexican vanilla, if using. Blend until smooth and creamy, about 45 seconds. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve if you want a pulqueria-smooth drink, pressing with a spoon. Leave it unstrained if you like the grain texture. Both ways exist. Choose and stand by it.

5. 5

   Fold in pulque

   Pour the chilled pulque into a clay pitcher or glass jar. Add the oat base and stir gently with a wooden spoon until the drink turns ivory and thick. Do not whip it hard in the blender after the pulque goes in. The women behind the pulqueria counter know this: blend the flavor, then respect the pulque.

6. 6

   Chill and serve

   Chill the pitcher for 15 minutes, then serve in pulqueria glasses or small clay jarritos with a pinch of ground canela and a few reserved toasted oats on top. Keep the pitcher cold and shaded if you serve it outdoors. Drink it the same day. Pulque keeps fermenting, so do not seal it tightly in a bottle and forget about it. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Fresh pulque should smell clean, lightly sour, and a little yeasty, like maguey and yogurt. If it smells like vinegar, rot, or dirty water, do not use it. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado.
• •Instant oatmeal packets do not belong here. They bring sugar, fake flavor, and dust. Use plain rolled oats and toast them yourself. No me vengas con atajos.
• •Canned pulque is a compromise, not an upgrade. If it is all you can find, choose unsweetened natural pulque, chill it well, and understand that you will lose some of the fresh lactic snap that makes Hidalgo pulque worth defending.
• •Do not add ice directly to the pitcher. It thins the curado and makes the oat texture watery. Chill the pulque, chill the base, and set the pitcher in an ice bath if you are serving outside.
• •This is alcoholic, even if it drinks gently. Pulque is usually low alcohol, but it is still fermented. Keep it away from children, pregnant guests, and anyone driving.

Advance Preparation

• •The toasted oat and piloncillo base can be made one day ahead and refrigerated without the pulque. Stir before using because the oats settle.
• •Combine the oat base with the pulque no more than 1 hour before serving. Curado de avena is best cold and fresh, not aged in the refrigerator.
• •Leftover curado can be refrigerated loosely covered for a few hours, but the texture thickens and the fermentation keeps moving. Drink it the day you make it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 260g)