Aguas Frescas--A Great Way to Use Up Fruit

We just discovered a wonderful way to use up fruit that's sitting around. I used to live in a hispanic community in Los Angeles, and every restaurant serves aguas frescas. They're iced fruit drinks stored in huge glass jars--common flavors are horchata (rice and cinnamon), Jamaica (hibiscus flower), and Tamarindo (a sweet/sour paste extracted from the long seed pod of the tamarind tree). They also make them out of almost any kind of fruit.

Here's the recipe--it's as simple as you can get:

2-3 cups fruit (cut up, mashed, or sliced)

3-4 cups water

1/2 - 1 cup sugar

Place fruit in the blender with the sugar and fill to the top with cold water. Blend until you have a liquid consistency. Serve with ice, if desired.

We make this all the time, using whatever fruit happens to be in season. Right now our favorites are watermelon (sandia) and strawberries (fresa).

Note: you can good deals on fresh fruit by visiting hispanic supermarkets.