Chickpea Crepes/Tortillas

I found out I'm completely intolerant of potatoes, which includes a lot of other starchy things, like tapioca, artichokes, jicama and all the potato derivatives. So here I am back at the drawing board! I am, however, very tolerant of chickpeas/garbanzos. And the bonus is they are so good for you, way higher in protein than grain flours.

So I went looking for some recipes and found some good ones, but the mice started racing around the wheel in my brain and I came up with this recipe.

Chickpea Crepes/Tortillas

1 cup chickpea flour

1 cup water, plus more as needed

1/4 teaspoon salt

Whisk all three together. Walk away and let it sit for 1/2 hour to an hour. This gives the chickpea a chance to absorb the water. Heat a 10" skillet up and add a little oil. Make sure the skillet is hot! Stir batter, it should be as thin as crepe batter, add water a tablespoon at a time until it's as thin as you like. Pour about a half cup over medium high heat until bottom is lightly brown. If it's not done it won't release easily from the skillet. Work the spatula around the sides and then the center. Flip and cook until it releases from the pan and is lightly brown. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator, should keep about a week. Makes about six nice sized crepes.

Yummy with a cream cheese filling for breakfast!

el Alce con Nopalitos (Elk and Prickly Pear)

In our travels to Mexico I have fallen in love with nopalitos.  I first had them in a tortilla with farmer cheese and a yummy different salsa.  They're supposed to be really good for you.  I went searching for the farmer cheese here and found some at the local grocer, but it was more aged, what I found in Mexico was more like a fresh cheese.  But I found nopalitos, in a jar.  Today I had elk steak thawing and Stan asked when we were going to eat the nopalitos.  The wheels started turning and this is what I came up with.  This goes really fast-the longest part was waiting for the rice to cook.

el Alce con Nopalitos

1 1/2 pounds elk steak, cut in small cubes

3 Tablespoons potato starch

1-2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 Tablespoons cooking oil

2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro

1 chipotle pepper, chopped

10-12 ounces chicken stock

12 ounce jar nopalitos, drained and rinsed (the jar I found had serrano peppers, cilantro and onion-bonus!)

Combine potato starch, salt and pepper; dredge elk in mixture. Brown in oil.  Add cilantro, chipotle and chicken stock.  Cook over medium heat until elk is done-5-7 minutes.  The combination of stock and potato starch make a nice sauce.  Add more stock if it gets more thick.  Add nopalitos and heat through.  Serve over rice, or in my case I served it over bean threads.  Stan had the rice and loved it, his exact words were, "Yeah, you can make this again."  High praise for Mr. Cool.

I think I can make it again, too!

Crackers! (Gluten Free)

I finally more or less perfected my cracker recipe after months of fooling around with ingredients. The recipe was originally for tortilla chips, but they were a boatload of work and super messy, so I set out to make it my own.

Chickpea Crackers

1 cup tapioca starch
1 cup chickpea (garbanzo) flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground flax seed
1/4 cup cold water
Extra tapioca starch

Beat egg together with oil, flax and water, set aside.  Stir dry ingredients together, stir in egg mixture. The mixture will be pretty soft. Turn out on a surface generously covered with tapioca starch. Knead a bit.

Don't be afraid to load on the tapioca starch.

Roll out in small batches. Try to get the dough as thin as you can. It's pretty sticky so just keep dusting with starch.

Cut out with a dusted cookie cutter. I use a small round cutter but you can cut them bigger if you like, adjust cooking time for the size. I've also used a pizza cutter and made squares, much faster but the round cracker is more uniform.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and prick with a fork. You can put them pretty close together, they don't spread.

Sprinkle a little salt over (don't skip this, it really makes a difference in the flavor). Bake at 375°. Start with 10 minutes and add time, a minute at a time until crackers are brown on the edges.  A good way to tell if they're done is when they loosen from the pan. Recipe makes about 100 small

I had a hard time keeping them from cracking in two, so I added the egg, switched from butter to oil, and added the flax.

It's so nice to have a good snack alternative. I've done just cheese, but my favorite is a smear of cream cheese and a dab of homemade pepper jelly. Yep, I eat pretty well for being an allergic chick!