Horchata de Chufa

Ingredients

2 servings (500 mL):

• 85 g (½ cup) tiger nuts
• 500 mL hot (not boiling) water
• 31 g (2.5 Tbsp) sugar
• ⅛ tsp kosher salt

4 servings (1L):

• 170 g (1 cup) tiger nuts
• 1L hot (not boiling) water
• 62 g (⅓ cup) sugar
• ¼ tsp kosher salt

6 servings (1.5L):

• 255 g (2 cups) tiger nuts
• 1.5L hot (not boiling) water
• 93 g (½ cup) sugar
• ⅜ tsp kosher salt

Directions

• Soak the tiger nuts sticks overnight (in the refrigerator) in enough water to cover them by 2".

• Discard soaking water and rinse soaked tiger nuts.

• Blend the soaked tiger nuts and half the hot water until homogeneous and almost smooth, ≈2 min.

• Pass the blended mixture through a mesh strainer. Use the back of a spoon to squeeze out as much liquid as possible.

• Repeat the above blending and straining steps, using the left over grounds and the remaining hot water.

• Pass the strained liquid through a few layers of cheesecloth. It should pass through pretty easily, but towards the end it may be necessary to gather the ends of the cheesecloth together and squeeze the liquid out.

• Add sugar and salt, mix well.

• Chill before serving.

Notes

• The tiger nut milk doesn't keep all that long once blended, so keep that in mind when deciding how much to make.

• There's no need to make two passes through cheesecloth. I tried this once (with fresh cheesecloth for both passes) and didn't filter anything out the second time.

• I initially added cinnamon sticks to this recipe, but eventually I realized that the cinnamon led to a burning/acrid taste that Fitzy and I both mistook for something rotten/spoiled.

References

• https://www.seriouseats.com/spanish-horchata-tiger-nut-nonalcoholic-drink-recipe
• https://www.carolinescooking.com/spanish-horchata-de-chufa/