Horchata Cupcakes

Since I had made horchata already, and I needed something to bring to a Mexican themed potluck that night, I made horchata cupcakes. I found this recipe online while searching for an horchata recipe and was intrigued. I love horchata... I love cupcakes... this made sense to make them. I just took some of the horchata that I made (after blending it but before diluting it and adding sugar) and used it in this recipe.

The cupcakes themselves are fairly easy to make if you already have horchata made. These cupcakes had a subtle horchata flavor (I don't know if you could tell what they were unless you were told... especially since horchata isn't an everyday flavor). I was disappointed in the frosting - you couldn't really taste the horchata, and you tasted the butter too much. I had to add more and more powdered sugar to get rid of the overwhelming butter taste.

I can't say that I'll be making these again. These cupcakes were good, but not fabulous, and when you already have a fabulous cupcake recipe why reinvent the wheel?

Horchata

I can remember the first time I had horchata. I was in medical school and went to a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant on the west side of Chicago with a friend for lunch. She ordered horchata, and I had never heard of it. I went ahead and got one too, and I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious it was. Horchata is a traditional Mexican drink made of rice, sugar, and water. This weekend I was hankering for horchata, and had some time on my hands, so I decided to make it.

Making horchata from scratch, I discovered, is a long, drawn-out process. First, you have to pulverize rice into a fine powder. Based on the recipes online that I found, the best way to do this is using a spice or coffee grinder, neither of which I own. One recipe said to use a food processor, so I pulled out the Cuisinart and processed the heck out of one cup of rice. It took a long time and was very noisy, and didn't get all the rice totally ground. Then you put the rice into a bowl with water, almonds, and cinnamon and let it soak for six hours. After that you blend it again, and then strain it with cheesecloth.

So much work. Was it worth it? Of course. I learned from it, and satisfied my inner desire to make horchata from scratch. Would I do it again? Well, if I have a Mexican restaurant close by where I could just go and buy horchata, then no. Plus my husband didn't really like it, so unless I was with someone who loved horchata and really wanted to have some, I probably won't make it again. I thought the final product was pretty tasty though.

Oh another thing. I didn't realize almonds were so expensive. Two cups of almonds cost me about seven dollars! That makes this drink a little cost-prohibitive. I'll need to search around for an horchata recipe that doesn't call for almonds. I could also try substituting almond extract.

I found a few recipes and adapted them to my liking. Here it is. It's pretty close to the Gale Gand recipe, but maybe next time I would try the Rick Bayless version.

Horchata

1 cup long grain white rice
2 cups skinless almonds
2-inch piece cinnamon bark
7 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Ice cubes

Wash and drain the rice. Using a food processor or spice grinder, grind the rice until fine; combine with the almonds and cinnamon bark. Add 3 1/2 cups water and let sit overnight, covered. Blend rice mixture until smooth using a blender. Add 2 1/2 cups of water and continue blending. Add sugar and vanilla extract. Strain horchata into a bowl first using a metal strainer and then a double layer of cheesecloth; finish with up to an additional 1 cups of water until it achieves a milky consistency. Enjoy over ice.

Chipotle-Black Bean Burritos and Spanish Rice

Here's another one I found when I was looking for good vegetarian meals to make. I like black beans... I like burritos... so this recipe made sense to try. I picked up some Pace chipotle salsa from my grocery store to use for this recipe. I know bottled salsa is not that great, but I live in east Tennessee and I'm pretty sure I would not find good chipotle salsa anywhere (unless I made it myself, which I didn't have the time or the gumption to do). I thought the filling for these burritos was just ok. I am sure that it had to do with the quality of my salsa (the rest of the filling is black beans, corn, sauteed onions, and chili powder... what's not to like?). The avocado-salsa mixture was pretty good, but again, I think it would have been even better with a good fresh salsa. Well I don't think I'll make this one again unless I can get my hands on a good tasting chipotle salsa.

I also made a side of Spanish rice to go with the burritos. I found a recipe on the Simply Recipes blog - a site I've heard good things about, but I've never made anything from her blog. This was good, not amazing, but a good side dish. I used Better than Boullion instead of chicken stock, so that probably had something to do with it. I've never browned uncooked rice before (we Asians don't do fancy things to our rice like that), so that was an entirely new experience. Not life-changing or anything, but a little bit paradigm-shifting.

So... moral of the story? Use good ingredients. The end product will only be as good as your ingredients that you start with. The end.

Yucatan-Style Chicken, Lime, and Orzo Soup

I've made this soup a couple times before and it's one that we enjoy, but I couldn't remember if I used two jalapenos or just one in the past. Note to future self: just use one jalapeno. Woo! Spicy. It's a great soup, but two jalapenos dominate the flavor of the soup. I used canned diced tomatoes this time - I think I do like fresh tomatoes better with this one. A good soup but better when it's turned down a notch.

Garden Vegetable Enchiladas

I made these enchiladas for dinner tonight. Delicious! I've never made enchiladas before so this was a fun experiment. They were very hearty even without any meat or beans in them (whole milk and butter help!). My husband said they would make good company food.

Tofu Fajitas

One of our friends in Wisconsin works for the publisher of Taste of Home, and gave us a couple cookbooks. Their Chicken Fajita recipe in one of them is one of my husband's favorites. I don't often make recipes out of cookbooks - I like to get them online, where I can read people's reviews of the recipe and see how many stars/forks it gets - but this is one I keep coming back to. We try to eat more healthy (especially after this season's holiday butter/sugar/egg gorge), so I usually substitute tofu for half of the chicken. Last night I made them with only tofu and they were great. I felt my body detoxing as I ate them. :) I used green peppers, onions, and green onions for the vegetables. I like red peppers in it too, but those are so much more expensive than green, and I'm cheap.