Irazu's Oatmeal Milkshake: I MUST duplicate!

Upon reflection of the 9 years that I spent living in Miami, there were but two things that became a part of my pseudo-Cuban existence (I'm Hungarian) that I regretfully took for granted: a perfect cup of cafe con leche, with slightly toasted cuban bread for dunking, and an aveno shake.

I am embarrassed to reveal that upon finishing my first shake tonite with my meal at Irazu, the adult, who must exercise control and constraint, proceeded to order a second, completely ignoring the cut-off of blood supply that was occuring as the band around my pants insisted on taking my stomach hostage.

Please help this girl out: one hour of Googling and I still can't find the exacts for this recipe.

Could anyone be so kind as to share the recipe?? Trade ya for knock-your-socks-off Hungarian Goulash!

Please keep us posted on your home attempts. I love those milkshakes. In fact, I may have to go get one right now.

I make my smoothies at home in the blender with a little rice milk, greek yogurt, honey, frozen mixed fruit (usually strawberry, melon, and peach mix from aldi) and about 1/4 cup of quick cooking oats(uncooked) per serving.

I could swear some show on FoodTV had demo'd an oatmeal shake, but no luck finding a recipe. The closest thing is an oatmeal cookie cocktail, which is Jagermeister, Irish Cream, Butterscotch Schnapps, Cinnamon Schnapps and garnished with raisins
(we really need a "mr yuk" face emoticon)

JoelF wrote:I could swear some show on FoodTV had demo'd an oatmeal shake, but no luck finding a recipe.

Yeah, that was the Secret Life Of... with Jim O'Connor. They went to Irazu and the Zephyr in that milkshake episode.

In the Conde Nast Traveler article about ethnic eating in Chicago (posted somewhere here last year), it lists the ingredients as:

I love Irazu's sunny interior, its folksy volcano mural, and its Avena shake—oatmeal blended with milk, ice, and cinnamon—which has the thickness and flavor, but not the fat, of vanilla ice cream.

I would say get the above and a blender and working out the proportions shouldn't take too much trial and error.

Oatmeal shakes, and their close cousin, puffed wheat shakes, are fairly common throughout the Caribbean and Central America. The Nestle web page for Costa Rica has a recipe that seems accurate (it is in Spanish). I like the puffed wheat shake better. NB, prepared cereals, which are like American breakfast cerals, are usually used. I'm not sure regular old rollled oats from the Quaker box would work.

Stop by La Unica for some avena y trigo para batidos. And pick up some condensed milk. It is a key ingredient in such shakes, whether on Calle Ocho or Argyle (and the thing that makes them less healthy than people like to think).

JeffB says:
" And pick up some condensed milk. It is a key ingredient in such shakes"

which is exactly right. I was in a whole bunch of folks' kitchens on St. Kitts, and every one of them had cases of cans of Carnation in the cupboard.

The standard 'shake' on St. Kitts is: one mango, one banana, bunch of ice cubes, couple Tbs of sugar, half-cup + of condensed milk, big palmful of wheat germ or some cold cereal. Blend.

Yum.

Geo

a half a cup of sweetened condensed milk belies the claim above that these shakes don't have the same calories and fat as vanilla ice cream.

1/2 cup of Carnation SCM is 520 calories and 12g fat.

don't get me wrong, it is soooo worth it, but I just found these two claims discongruous.

The Kittesians don't use Carnation SCM, just the straight condensed. They add sugar on their own ad lib... which, in some cases, is more sweetening than Carnation itself would provide!

But not usually--a couple of Tbs is the typical amount of added sugar.

Of course, their mangoes are AWfully ripe, to begin with.

Geo

Do you mean evaporated milk? If memory (and the nestle site and wikipedia) serves, there isn't a Carnation unsweetened condensed milk?

Sorry if I'm confused (I am)!

No, you're not confused, I'm just sloppy terminologically: canned Carnation is what they use, and I don't know what it's called down there! "Evaporated" , "Condensed", I dunno... sorry to be so sloppy about it. But it's NOT sweetened.

Funny, I never noticed--even up here in The North--the difference between 'evaporated' and 'condensed'. I wonder wherein lies the difference??

I bet *some*body on this board knows!!

Geo
PS. Besides, for sweetened, my momma always told me to use Eagle Brand!!

The convention in the United States is that condensed milk is sweetened while evaporated milk just has some water removed.

To be clear, by "condensed," I meant "condensed." It's sweetened and much, much thicker than evaporated. Condensed is for coffee, shakes, flan, churros and Chinese donuts. Evaporated is for mashed potatoes, cole slaw and mac n' cheese.

JeffB wrote:...And pick up some condensed milk. It is a key ingredient in such shakes, whether on Calle Ocho or Argyle (and the thing that makes them less healthy than people like to think).

Well, condensed milk is usually lowfat, so it's not quite as bad as you think, but there's still a lot of sugar.

Condensed milk is used in a lot of central american and caribbean sweets: key lime pie, Belize's national dessert of lemon meringue pie (barely resembling the standard version, with a soft meringue and a graham crust, usually made in a rectangular baking dish), and others.

Condensed milk keeps forever, unlike fresh milk items, so it's a good staple for cooking with down there.

Yeah. I've never seen a Cuban kitchen without at least one open can. Condensed milk and malta, the breakfast of champions.

Not knowing whether to trust my memory or not, last night I wrote a pal of mine who manages a resort on Nevis, and in whose kitchen I've concocted a shake or two myself. "Read me the label on a can of milk, would you please?" I asked her. Here's what she said.

The can of milk I hold in my hand says:
Evaporated Milk
Unsweetened Condensed
Manufactured in Canada


So there you have it, straight from the Caribbean horse's mouth. Or typing fingers anyway.

Geo

Geo,

Interesting. I have never seen unsweetened condensed milk sold here. I wonder how the manufacturing process differs, if at all (other than the sugar), between what is sold as evaporated and condensed in the US. What is sold as "evaporated" clearly is much thinner and possibly represents less starting product (ie, milk) per volume of finished product.

In my experience, sweetened condensed milk is what's used in Cuba, the DR, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia (let's say, Spanish-speaking Carribean). It is also what's used in Vietnamese, Thai and Chinese drinks.

Those Nevis folks are health nuts, it seems.

According to wikipedia:

By definition, evaporated milk in the U.S. is not sweetened. If sugar is added, it will be called condensed milk or sweetened condensed milk. This requires less processing since the added sugar inhibits bacterial growth.

JeffB wrote:Interesting. I have never seen unsweetened condensed milk sold here.

I've never seen unsweetened condensed milk either. Anywhere. Evaporated milk is thicker (than whole milk), has a very different taste and is usually always unsweetened. I'll look to see if cans mention that it is 'condensed'.
Geo, what was the brand of the can from which your friend read the label? Carnation ?

this site's FAQ wrote:Topic/Question: What is the difference between Evaporated Milk and Sweetened Condensed Milk?

Answer: Evaporated Milk has been processed to remove half the water. There is no sugar added to this product. Sweetened Condensed Milk is milk that has half the water removed and then had sugar added to it. These products should not be used as direct substitutes for one another.

Some additional infor here (See third paragraph in "Origins" section). It starts, "(Although the terms "evaporated milk" and "condensed milk" are often used interchangeably, the latter term can refer to either of two very different products." etc.

Just heard back from my friend on Nevis: "Yes, it's Carnation!"

She then tweaked me about how wonderful the weather has finally become Down There... esp. tweaking since we're at the moment on Long Island for TODG's mom's b-day, looking out at bright sun shining off the several inches of ice and snow we got yesterday.

Oh, to be on Nevis, drinking a mango-banana smoothie!!

Geo

Reviving an old thread here....has anyone been able to duplicate this oatmeal shake??? I've been wanting to try to make this. cook or soak the oatmeal or not?? Searches on the internet say that this shake is simply oatmeal, milk, ice and maybe sugar and cinnamon. Some think commercial horchata is added. Please advise if you know the way to make this.

I've seen them made with fully cooked rolled oats instead of raw, less "gummy"

Thanks, good idea. I searched around the internet and find they are called Avena. I just made one. I am looking for something to eat that is small and healthy to keep me going...I've eaten so much food on the Fourth of July weekend that I need to take it down a notch....so looking for recipes turned up a few but maybe not the same as Irazu's which by the way I've never had. I do love oatmeal though.

I used a half a cup of water cooked oatmeal slightly cooled. Meaning I dumped oatmeal in a cup and added boiling water from my tea kettle to it to make a thickish cooked half a cup of oatmeal. I added this to my trusty bee hive blender. One cup of two percent cold milk. Three fourths a scoop of vanilla protein shake mix which would be optional but boosts up vitamins and protein. I'd add vanilla extract to it if I did not add this. Then five ice cubes and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Also added a packet of Splenda but sugar would do too. Buzzed this in a blender and put in a glass and drank. It was a pleasant tasting smoothie type of beverage...tasted a lot like liquid rice pudding but there is no rice. The oatmeal kind of blends in but there is a certain texture to it, not unpleasant.
It was not thick like a commercial shake, it was a bit thinner but you could play around with it to taste. I can see making this with Rice, Soy or Almond milk too and a half a soft banana would add some flavor or body. A good drink as a meal substitute for the warm weather. I'd rather have warm oatmeal in the winter....cozy and soothing in the morning.

The recipes I'm finding are similar - many variations on "cook a runny version of oatmeal in water, add milk cinnamon, ice, sugar, blend"

toria wrote:Reviving an old thread here....has anyone been able to duplicate this oatmeal shake??? I've been wanting to try to make this. cook or soak the oatmeal or not?? Searches on the internet say that this shake is simply oatmeal, milk, ice and maybe sugar and cinnamon. Some think commercial horchata is added. Please advise if you know the way to make this.

Last Sunday on "Chicago's Best" (WGN-TV Sundays 10PM) they featured a place that serves one and showed how they make it. Vanilla is one of the ingredients.
Watch it @
Chicago's Best Mexican @ Tiztal Cafe\
Tiztal Café
4631 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60613
(773) 271-4631

Yes I did see that. I think they put ice cream in theirs which I didn't. Sure would be good but trying to cut calories. I do note they used raw uncooked oatmeal. A dash of vanilla is also a good touch in addition to the cinnamon.