I’m in the middle of a series, “Type Heroes: Which Hero of Legend will you be?“–coming soon to a blog near you; but in the meantime I thought I’d share something else with you… my breakfast.
Like most things with ENTP’s, this meal began with a concept; a challenge: Could I make gluten and corn-free wraps from the ingredients I had around?
Well, actually it started with hunger. Hunger that remembered a conversation I’d had the other day with our check-out woman (check-out lady always sounds derogatory to me) about how good canned chicken is with melted white cheese. There were other yummy things involved in this conversation, but today Calise’s senses demanded chicken and white cheese. And it didn’t matter that it was the wee hours of the morning. I rarely eat traditional breakfast anyway. Nope, no cereal or oatmeal or fruit; cheesy chicken.
Okay, no problem. We had picked up some canned chicken on said Walmart trip and we had some white cheese slices (cheap-o kind). I figured I could throw some taco seasoning and melt-y cheese in there and we’d be good to go.
But on the wraps I pondered longer. We have some soft corn tortillas but I know my INFJ isn’t a fan of them and we don’t usually buy wheat tortillas because I can’t stomach the idea of paying exorbitant amounts for flour and lard. Besides which, we don’t buy the white ones because I try to avoid white flour (ignoring the fact that we eat a lot of $0.50 mac and cheese. I’m not lazy, I’m in the middle of something…always).
I’ve made flour tortillas at home before but I personally find the kneading a pain in the butt and besides that, why do it the established way when you can do it the *cooler* way? Make it better, stronger, faster. I am the technology!
Thus were garbanzo bean crepes born. Using the principles of action that I’ve learned through other cooking experiments, and not being afraid to make mistakes (fear is what ruins all my failed experiments) I concocted a batter. Canned garbanzo beans, quick oats, eggs, a little oil and a little milk (and a couple other things); this was my team. Which is *not* to say there weren’t mistakes. Ha ha. Oh there were *plenty* of mistakes. But one of an ENTP’s greatest strengths is resourcefulness and fixing mistakes on the fly! Especially when we can keep a self-confident head and not get discouraged.
Accidentally put the garbanzo beans into the blender before making the oats into powder? No problem, just stop and dump the beans (un-blent) into a bowl and add extra starch so the oats don’t stick to the wet blades. Mixture too thick? Just add more water. And milk. And eggs. And water. And milk. Make sure the blades can actually turn within the mixture so the motor belt doesn’t start smelling bad. (<3 the little blender that could!)
Then it was time to cook my masterpiece! Or to throw some onions in with the chicken. That would be
good first. It’s important as an ENTP cook to be willing to stop and course correct in the middle of what you’re doing. Turn the pan off when you need to reblend your concoction; don’t be discouraged when you forget to grease the pan so your first “crepe” comes out more like a pancake on crack (sorry, no pics of the crack-cake). More eggs, milk and water will help that too! And it still tasted just fine. I ate it while I waited on the other ones.
While the batter kept being perfected (and I wrote down the changes as I made them), so did my cooking technique. The crepes started out thicker and more like… a non-high version of a pancake. Better, but still not good for wrapping cheesy chicken in its loving embrace. For a bean crepe of that stature, you have to pour the batter in all at once, but not too much, and then swirl it around the pan so it’s all thin and even before it cooks too much… it’s hard to describe and it takes practice, but I got pretty good by the end.
The result? A lovely crepe that is perfect for snuggling cheesy chicken in its golden arms. They would also be great for breakfast burritos or sandwich wraps. You could even add a little sugar maybe and make them into traditional crepes for fruit, etc.
My INFJ says what makes them way better than corn tortillas is that they’re super mild tasting. He doesn’t like how corn tortillas overwhelm the flavor of whatever is inside them. This is a common trend with my INFJ. He takes tomatoes off of burgers not because he doesn’t like tomatoes, but because he says they distract from the meat. And the boy likes his meat. He feels similarly about green peppers and jalapenos.
So, ta-da! A recipe where there was none! No promises I can replicate it next time. But hopefully if I try and make it afresh, using principles of action rather than *overly specific actions*, I’ll be able to adapt just as well next time 😀
Here’s what an ENTP recipe looks like (watermark a must in case someone wants to claim my atrocious handwriting as their own!)
If you can’t read it (lol), it says…
- Blend about 1 Tbs of starch (I used tapioca, but you could use any kind) together with 1.5 cups of oats, until the consistency of flour (ish). Oats are gluten-free, but if traces aren’t okay, make sure you get specifically gluten-free oats as well as other ingredients.
- Add 6 eggs. You could probably get away with less. Definitely if you’re substituting wheat flour for the oats if you care about the protein, etc of the beans, but don’t care about gluten-free. Eggs compensate for the lack of gluten and keep the crepes together. Blend.
- Add about 2 Tbs of your oil of choice. I used canola this time. Coconut or butter would be great.
- Add 1 can of garbanzo beans, the “normal” can size. 15 or 16 oz, whatever it is. I drained mine, but ended up adding back in a ton of liquid so you could use the liquid if you want. It may taste more bean-y though. I think you could also sub other kinds of beans for the garbanzos; I’d like to try kidney beans or black beans. If you’re brave and/or don’t do legumes, try using something else puree-able, like vegetables or something. I could see carrots or broccoli working…but don’t take my word for it. Levar Burton taught me well.
- I then wrote down “water as needed (
1 c)” which I later added “+” to. Yeah don’t listen to me. Er… don’t listen to previous me… about this… listen to current me… Point is, you’re going to need a lot of liquid. At first, just add enough so the blender can handle getting the garbanzos all smooth, but then you’ll need enough liquid between the water, eggs and milk to give the batter the right consistency. Seriously, I think you could add orange juice or vodka and it would get it right for pouring… but the results of those things are *very* untested, so don’t do that. They’d both be yucky with cheesy chicken and we can’t have that. You want it to be similar to cake batter, but really, just mess with it until it pours correctly. - About 1 tsp of salt (I used sea salt). Actually this was estimated from staring at the small pile of salt in my hand so just use common salt-sense.
- About 1/2 tsp baking soda. See salt commentary.
- “Splash of milk ++”. The ++ was added later. See the water commentary above. If using milk (and not water, or windshield wiper fluid (don’t use windshield wiper fluid (parenth-ception))) any kind of milk will do. Almond, soy, yak; they just might taste slightly different so beware that detail. So yeah, consistency is key.
Cook 2 cans of drained chicken (I save my broth), 2 chopped onions, less than half a packet of taco seasoning (it really doesn’t take much), garlic powder and black pepper as you like them, on medium in a large skillet until the onions smell incredible and are… you know, cooked. Then add several chunks of easy-melt cheese like Velveeta (or real cheese if you’d rather) and 3 slices of white cheese (again I just used the processed stuff) and a healthy squirt of ranch with your skillet on low until everything is all melty, cheesy and wonderful!
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