Horchata Oaxaqueña con Tuna y Nuez

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Cheesecloth or clean cotton servilleta
• •Large glass pitcher
• •Small heavy saucepan for the tuna syrup
• •Tall glasses or wide-mouthed clay jarros
• •Long-handled spoons for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the rice and almonds

   Rinse the rice under cold water until the water runs clear. Combine the rice, blanched almonds, and the stick of canela in a large bowl. Cover with 4 cups of cold water. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and leave it on the counter overnight, at least 8 hours. Do not skip this step. The water has to do its work. Dry rice will not give you horchata, it will give you cloudy water.

   Use Mexican canela, the soft bark you can break with your fingers. The hard cassia bark sold as cinnamon in American supermarkets is a different spice and it will give you a sharp, medicinal note that does not belong in horchata.
2. 2

   Blend the base

   Pour the rice, almonds, canela, and the soaking water into a high-powered blender. Add 2 more cups of cold water. Blend on high for 3 to 4 full minutes. The mixture will look like cloudy white soup with fine grit at the bottom. That grit is the rice still giving up its starch. Long blending is the recipe. Short blending is a thin, sad horchata.

3. 3

   Strain twice

   Set a fine-mesh strainer over a large pitcher. Line it with a double layer of cheesecloth or a clean cotton servilleta. Pour the blended mixture through, pressing on the solids with the back of a ladle to extract every drop. Then strain it a second time through fresh cheesecloth into another pitcher. Two strains. Asi se hace y punto. One strain leaves grit on your tongue.

4. 4

   Sweeten and round it out

   Stir in the remaining 2 cups of cold water, the whole milk, the 3/4 cup of sugar, and the vanilla. Whisk until the sugar is fully dissolved. Taste it. It should be cool, creamy, and gently sweet, with the canela in the background. If it tastes shy, add another tablespoon of sugar at a time. The melon and the tuna syrup will add their own sweetness later, so do not overdo it now.

5. 5

   Make the tuna syrup

   While the horchata chills, peel the tunas with a paring knife, working carefully because even the spineless ones at the mercado can hide a glochid or two. Roughly chop the flesh and combine it with the 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons of water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring and crushing the tuna with the back of a wooden spoon, for 6 to 8 minutes, until the fruit breaks down and the syrup turns deep magenta. Off the heat, stir in the lime juice. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a small bowl, pressing hard on the seeds. Discard the seeds. Refrigerate the syrup until cold.

   The seeds are inedible. Do not skip the strain. The lime is not optional either, it is what keeps the magenta from turning brown as the syrup sits.
6. 6

   Chill everything cold

   Refrigerate the horchata, the tuna syrup, the diced cantaloupe, and the chopped pecans, separately, for at least 2 hours. This drink lives or dies on temperature. Lukewarm horchata oaxaqueña is a betrayal of the dish.

7. 7

   Build the glass

   Stir the chilled horchata well, the rice solids settle as it sits. Fill tall glasses or wide-mouthed clay jarros two-thirds full with horchata. Add a generous spoonful of diced cantaloupe so the cubes float on top. Drizzle 2 to 3 tablespoons of the cold tuna syrup over the surface, letting it bleed magenta down the sides of the glass. Scatter a heavy pinch of chopped pecans across the top. Dust with ground canela. Serve with a long spoon. This is not a drink you sip politely. It is dessert in a glass. Eat the melon and the nuez along with the horchata, the way they do at the Mercado 20 de Noviembre in Oaxaca City.

Chef Tips

• •Mexican canela is the soft, flaky bark, sometimes labeled Ceylon cinnamon. The hard, dark sticks sold as cinnamon in most American supermarkets are cassia, a different spice with a sharper, more aggressive flavor. Use the right one. La canela mexicana es otra cosa.
• •Buy the tunas red and ripe. Green tunas are a different fruit with a pale yellow flesh and they will not give you the magenta color the dish needs. Ask your vendor for tuna roja. If they only have tuna verde, make a different agua fresca that day.
• •If the cantaloupe at the market is not sweet, do not force this dish. Use papaya, mango, or watermelon, whatever the mercado is selling ripe today. Mexican cooks work with what is in season, not with what the recipe demands. A bad cantaloupe will ruin the glass.
• •Pecans are nuez in Mexico. Walnuts are nuez de Castilla. They are not interchangeable. Pecans are softer, sweeter, and they belong in this drink. Walnuts will taste bitter and out of place.

Advance Preparation

• •The horchata base can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Stir well before serving, the rice solids settle and the drink separates as it sits.
• •The tuna syrup keeps refrigerated for up to 5 days. Make it ahead, the lime keeps the color bright.
• •Dice the cantaloupe and chop the pecans the morning of serving. Cantaloupe weeps after a day in the refrigerator and the texture suffers.
• •Do not assemble the glasses ahead of time. The toppings must go on at the moment of serving or the melon sinks and the syrup bleeds into a muddy pink. Build each glass to order.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 390g)