I haven’t posted in a while. I haven’t been keeping up with social media for my blog. I think the last time I logged onto Twitter was last month. I haven’t abandoned my blog, but I’ve been having a hard time keeping up with everything recently. I got a job, had a six-week SAT course (that I just finished – yay!), started school and got sick. So I haven’t gotten around to blogging recently. But now I’m going to try to get back on track.

This recipe wasn’t intended to be part of my Mexican Food series. I just happened to make it. And about the arsenic in rice thing: I use locally grown California rice, and the rice that has the most arsenic is grown in the South where cotton farms used to be. These cotton farms used arsenical pesticides. Arsenic from these pesticides is still lingering in the soil there, and it contaminates the rice. Although California rice doesn’t have as much arsenic, it is still present. If you rinse your rice really well before you cook it (or use it for horchata), you can get rid of a lot of the arsenic. Cooking rice in lots of water and then draining extra water is supposed to help to. Here’s more information.

I love horchata. This recipe uses brown rice. I haven’t tried making regular horchata with white rice, but the best version I’ve had is one that my friend made for me with the one canned food I miss: sweetened condensed milk. If you’re a regular reader, you probably already know that I don’t eat canned food because most cans have a plastic lining that contains BPA (a toxic hormone-mimicking plastics chemical), and even if the label says “BPA-free” it’s still likely to contain some kind of hormone mimicking substance in the lining.  Anyway, my recipe uses cream top whole milk from a glass bottle. You don’t have to use whole milk, but I like to because it tastes awesome. Using this recipe, you can either make rice milk or horchata. Here’s are the ingredients you need for the recipe. (If you’re planning on just making plain rice milk, all you need is brown rice and water.)

• 1 cup rinsed brown rice (Short or long grain. I bought the rice in bulk.)
• 4 cups water (plus water to soak rice in overnight)
• 2 tsp cinnamon plus 1/2 tsp cinnamon (I bought this in bulk and put it in an old spice jar)
• 1 cup whole milk (I used milk in a glass bottle, which unfortunately has a plastic lid. This is the most plastic-free version I’ve found.)

Put rice and two teaspoons of cinnamon in a bowl. Add enough water to cover by about 1/2 an inch. Let sit overnight. I use plates or towels to cover things that I have soaking instead of plastic wrap. (If you’re just making plain rice milk, omit the cinnamon.)

The next day, drain the rice but don’t rinse it. Put it in a blender with the four cups of water. Blend for about three minutes on high.

Pour through a tea-towel lined strainer. Squeeze the towel to get out as much liquid as possible. You can save the rice puree and cook it to make porridge like this. If you just want to make plain rice milk, you’re done! Refrigerate and enjoy. To continue making horchata, put the rice milk back into your blender (make sure your blender doesn’t have chunks of rice puree in it).

Add honey, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and milk. Blend until well mixed. Serve with cinnamon sprinkled on top.

Enjoy!