Well here we are, the 5th and final day of sandwich recipes found all over the web. Except today I took it upon myself to throw some ingredients together and see
if I could create something unique. I also drew inspiration from the Great Sandwich Lawsuit of 2006 that I mentioned in previous posts. Even though the verdict in that case was that a burrito was NOT a sandwich, I decided to concoct a recipe that combines elements of both a traditional sandwich and a burrito. I started with a soft taco-size flour tortilla, then added black beans to form the base of what would appear to be a burrito. But then the rest of the ingredients would be found in a sandwich, specifically things that HAD been used in the sandwiches I had made on Day 1 and Day 4. These were low-fat alpine lace Swiss cheese, smoked ham, pre-chopped salad mixture, sliced bell pepper, cucumber, and stone-ground mustard. I’ll admit, this one was easily the messiest and most involved of the entire week’s crop, as you can see in this mid-assembly (photo on left).
The two main difficult parts of this recipe are heating the tortilla properly and rolling the tortilla. To heat, I put an ungreased skillet on the stove and turned the heat up to medium-high.
Then, although it seems like a very short period of time, I put the tortilla on the skiller for 10-15 seconds and then flipped it and kept it on for another 10 seconds. This softens it up and makes it warm, so I made the bottom ingredient the cheese, followed by the beans which I had cooked for about 6-8 minutes under medium heat to further encourage the melting of the cheese and keep that tortilla soft. I quickly piled on the rest of the ingredients and then attempted to roll the thing into a burrito. I failed miserably on my first attempt and ended up eating it for breakfast over the sink like a taco. Then I realized that the secret is to SQUEEZE the ingredients as you roll it. First fold over the ends of the left and right side. Then (yes you have to get your fingers messy) roll the part closest to you up and over with your palms down and your fingers curled under and into the ingredients, squeezing them into the tortilla as you go. If you heated the tortilla properly and it was a fresh one, it will be nice and stretchable so you can just tuck the flap underneath so the burrito is sitting on the folded crease, like in this shot of the two finished burritos (photo on right).
The taste is not bad at all – basically like a sandwich with a twist or these wraps that you can get. But for me, it’s the inclusion of the beans (and maybe next time I would use a little salsa) that makes it a true synthesis of the burrito and the sandwich…The Sandwich Burrito!!!!
