Yogurt not so Plain

Sometimes I wish that the challenge I set before myself was as simple as pouring something out of the container and call it finished.

Unfortunately, that's not how my brain functions.

For this ingredient, the boyfriend picked plain yogurt.  Smoothies and my favorite lassi were out of the question due to a broken blender so I picked an Indian dessert: bhapa doi

A nice light dessert that isn't overly sweet despite the sweetened condensed milk incorporated into the dish itself.

The Chinese meet the Indian Saag

I haven't put recipes on this blog for a reason.  Yes it is a cooking blog, but blogs with recipes are a bit overdone, and my purpose is to try and experiment with the food around me.  Though, if you as the reader, would want the recipes I used, I can release it.  Otherwise, its more of a sociological take on cooking as opposed to the art of cooking.

The boyfriend challenged me with the ingredient of bok choy.  Otherwise known as Chinese cabbage.  I had watched an Iron Chef episode on bok choy and feared that my challenge would involve my ice cream maker.  Thankfully, it didn't, but the request of a non-Chinese dish did come up.  I was definitely stuck on this one, until I thought to myself, if it has the same composition as spinach in the leaves, why couldn't I use it like a spinach?

Bok Choy Saag

I challenged myself to think a little further.  What is a spinach dish that I love?  Okay, maybe love is too strong of a word, but aside from wilting spinach and calling it a meal, what could I do?  I kept on the Asia continent for this dish, which made it even more interesting since I was specifically told, no Chinese style to the Chinese cabbage.

I reverted to Indian.  Yup, Indian.  Indian Saag.  I love the flavors that come out of saag when I have it in the restaurants and I thought, why not try making it out of bok choy.  The results were hardly different from spinach saag, in fact, I almost had to do a second take myself when I tasted it since it was almost no different.

Chickpeas are peas I like..

I am one not to like peas, no matter what you do to a pea in terms of cooking, it tastes of nothing.  I disown my English roots on this matter.

Though chickpeas are a different matter.  The boyfriend requested that I did something with chickpeas that didn't involve humus.

Curried Okra and Chickpeas served with curry chicken

Chickpeas can either be bought dried or in cans, at least from what I could find immediately.  For time sake, the canned chickpeas isn't overly filled with sodium like most canned goods.  I'm kind of anti-canned goods when at all possible due to the sodium content and well, fresher is better taste wise anyways.  Its also cheaper in the long run.

Anyways, for this dish, I decided to go to an Indian favorite of mine growing up. I lived next door to an Indian family and they always invited me over for Indian food.  The aromas that came from their house every day would end up on my clothes and I seriously didn't mind since I liked Indian food.  It was also more incentive for me to figure out how to cook Indian food since I was moving from the area and soon to be on my own.  I could've easily gone to the Indian restaurant but that would've involve more money than I was able to spend.  Poor college student was never truer than living in the San Francisco Bay Area post North of Houston high school wages.

Upon reflection, I probably should've given the boyfriend some traditional naan or Basmati rice to go with his chickpea to ward off the excess heat. Either way, the dish brought back some memories of mine and the challenge continues.