Hi, drink lovers!
I hope you're all doing great 😁
This post is about a nutritious, refreshing, satiating, and very, very cheap drink.
Do you like fermented drinks? Not all of them will get you drunk. Fermented rice drinks are popular in my town, and I mean for the whole family. Kids love these, and perhaps this is why milk has been added at some point in history. We couldn't tell. The truth is that this popular drink, one of the famous ones called chicha is a lactose-free soft drink, high in microflora, good for our immune system and digestion. Besides, it's easy to make and so delicious ❤️
Because of its high electrolyte content, fermented rice is excellent for hydration, reducing body heat and fatigue. In my town, rice chicha is known as a "refreshing" drink, although its thick, porridge-like appearance does not favor this statement. But now you know--if you didn't already.
Unlike regular cooked rice, fermented rice is packed with nutrients. We're talking about B complex as well, B12 included—which is vital if you’re keeping a plant based diet.
Iron, selenium, magnesium, potassium, iron, calcium, and other nutrients and micronutrients are found in rice but only after undergoing fermentation.
A lot of body-friendly bacteria are waiting for you in a refreshing glass of cold rice chicha with broken ice, ground cinnamon sprinkled on top and a soft aftertaste of vanilla.
The broken ice becomes water little by little and helps the thick delight to become a little more liquid, just a little, just enough so that we can drink it, but not so much that it can stay longer in our mouth.
When my two liters of chicha were ready, I did the math to see how much it had cost me. I was surprised. I've spent less than $0.50 on ingredients to make 2 liters of rice chicha (8 glasses with no ice up to 12 glasses with ice) 😉
Ingredients
* 200 gr rice
* water to soak
* 1.5 ml fresh water to cook
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
* a couple of cinnamon sticks
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
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* broken ice for serving
* ground cinnamon for garnish
Let's make rice chicha!
The first thing to do is to wash the rice under the tap, rubbing it between our fingers to break its protective layer and allow the starch to come out later.
Pour the washed rice into a clean glass or plastic container and cover it with clean, cool water. Leave it well covered (not hermetically sealed, but just enough to keep out any dirt or bug) in a place where it won't be exposed to direct sunlight. In the photo next to the list of ingredients, you can see that I left it in a reused plastic container on my refrigerator.
Wash and change the water everyday during 3 days. On the third day, wash the rice under the tap again and pour it into a clean pot. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the ice and ground cinnamon obviously 🐒). I like to add half of the water only for cooking; then I add fresh water as the blender goes. This allows me to control the thickness of the mixture.
Cook over medium fire for 25-30 minutes. Stir to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
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After 25-30 minutes of cooking, remove the pot from the heat and let it rest for 10 minutes. This rest will help you to remove all the rice from the pot more easily because the grains will finish hydrating and thus will detach more easily from the bottom and walls of the pot; in addition, you don't want it to be so hot when you transfer it to the blender.
As the capacity of my blender is 1.125 lts, I must blend the mixture in two rounds.
Fortunately, I do have a big jar.
It's a measuring jar with a lid, ideal to store it in the fridge after it cools.
Time to fill the glasses!
After the chicha has cooled, it turns thicker. It's customary to add as much broken ice as chicha in the glass so it turns a little more fluid as you stir it with a straw, for example.
Look at it, how thick it is.
It's also our tradition that we add ground cinnamon. It makes the whole experience fresher and also makes the chicha taste sweeter without us having to add more sugar.
Add ice to your liking and a straw, et voilà! 😁 My friends are always surprised that it has no milk of any kind. It's just delicious!
Cheers!
This fermented rice drink is traditional in my country and has survived for a few centuries--as far as we know. Originally it doesn't contain any milk, let alone condensed milk.
It's a nutritious, refreshing, satiating, and very, very cheap drink.
I have even seen them served with cocoa and cookies, though. You can make it as fun as you want. For me, a little vanilla and cinnamon is fun enough.
As always, I hope you have found this post useful 😁❤️
All text and images are my own. I have taken the pictures with my Redmi 9T cell phone. And if any GIFs here, I've used GIPHY for all them.
Thank you so much for your visit :)
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