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Melon Seed Horchata
2 CUPS MELON SEEDS I CINNAMON STICK I QUART WATER 1/2 CUP SUGAR Wash seeds thoroughly and grind them fine, shells and all, Stir in water with sugar. Let stirring occasionally until seeds Strain through fine sieve and with the cinnamon stick. stand in ice or a cool place, strongly flavor the water. serve with ice, if it hasn't melted.
Try mixing equal amounts of cantaloupe, watermelon, summer squash and cucumber seeds in the same way.
A cold-steeped seed drink of the kind sold across Mexico as horchata de melón. The instructions in the original have become jumbled in printing, but the method is simple: grind, steep, strain, chill.
- Order of workWash and grind the seeds shells and all, stir them into the quart of water with the sugar and the cinnamon stick, let the mixture stand cold and stir occasionally until the water tastes strongly of melon, then strain through a fine sieve and serve over ice.
- How many melonsTwo cups of seeds is a lot — likely the seeds of several cantaloupes or of a large watermelon, though the yield varies a good deal with size and variety. Save and rinse them over several days, keeping them covered in the refrigerator, or reduce everything proportionally.
- GrindingA blender does this better than any hand grinder. Blend the seeds with part of the water for 30-60 seconds until the shells are broken and the liquid turns milky white; the flavour lives in the soft kernel inside the husk.
- Steeping time"Until seeds strongly flavor the water" gives no time; a few hours in the refrigerator is a reasonable starting point, and the recipe expects you to taste for strength. Very long steeping may let the ground shells contribute a green, bitter edge.
- StrainingA fine sieve alone leaves grit. Line it with muslin or use a nut-milk bag and squeeze, which is what gives the drink its characteristic pale, slightly opaque body.
- SugarHalf a cup to a quart is on the sweet side by modern taste, and melon seeds carry no sweetness of their own. Start with a third of a cup and adjust after straining, since the sugar dissolves cold and can be added at any point.
- Keeping itThis is an uncooked drink with no acid and no preservative. Keep it refrigerated and drink it within two days; it separates on standing, so stir or shake before pouring.
- YieldAbout a quart before ice, or four modest glasses. The mixed-seed version the recipe suggests — cantaloupe, watermelon, summer squash and cucumber — will be milder and more vegetal.
Horchata is a family of drinks rather than a single recipe: the name descends through Spanish from a Latin root for barley, and versions across Spain and Latin America have been built on tiger nuts, rice, almonds, sesame and melon seeds. In Mexico the best-known horchata is the rice one, but melon-seed drinks are also sold at aguas frescas stands and make a thrifty use of seeds that would otherwise be thrown out. The suggestion of pooling squash and cucumber seeds with the melon extends the same thinking to whatever the summer garden happens to be producing.