Christmas @ Haarlem

I've never enjoyed Christmas as much as I enjoyed today....early morning we went to one of our frens place at Haarlem and attended the mass at the Cathedral in Haarlem with them. It was interesting as I was attending a Christmas mass for the first time in my life. Merry Christmas to me and to you...

Flowers or veggies???

2nd bunch of tulips

After buying the 1st bunch of tulips few days back I ended up buying another one yesterday...as I've been trying to live in a students budget (which is not easy for me) buying flowers over veggies does effect my budget so  I've been trying to convince myself NOT to buy cut flowers every week. But..... the Tulips are really pretty, lasts for about a week, really brightens my room and fits in my budget perfectly (just 2 euros)....there I go...trapped in the flower vs veggies debate...at the end flowers wins and I am planning to buy all the possible colors of tulip while I am here in Netherlands.  Once I am back home in India next year  I know I will never buy tulips coz it will be unaffordable and also it'll not be available at the local florist...last time I bought  deep orange color and this time I bought the lovey red...next time maybe I'll buy the Pink tulips. 

Is it real???? A Tulip story

Tulips on my table

Yesterday I finally bought Tulips from the flower shop next to Albert Heijn XL and  also bought a beautiful vase....as cooking is my first priority I think its more practical to buy veggies than flower, it's not that I've not been buying flowers but I've been buying only the potted plants and not the trimmed flowers but yesterday I just decided to buy flowers over "veggies"....and come on m in the Netherlands how can I not buy Tulips...maybe this is the only place in Europe where I can get 9 Tulips for 2 Euro or even cheaper sometimes (3 bunch for 5 Euro). It looks beautiful on my table and I think it really  brightens my room. 

Later in the evening my fren CD had come over for dinner and her first reaction after seeing the tulips were "Oh....it's beautiful but is it real????" and I said "You don't trust me with flowers right??? The reason why CD said that  m sure is because of the very real looking fake orchid I've in my room which  I got from Bangkok and have kept it in a pot to make it look even more real....it might sound funny but its looks more real than the real ones they sell here. And again this afternoon my fren KR came and she said the same thing "is it real??". We all had a good laugh over my tulips...

and I travel again

To Germany....this month and Spain & Portugal next month, the tickets are booked and I am back to my travel spree.... I realize that I always end up travelling wherever I am.  In Germany we'll be going to Koln and visiting the the very popular and many Christmas Market there... we are  planning to go to Barcelona and Granada in Spain and  Lisbon & Porto in Portugal.  More updates will follow.....:)

Saturday lunch.....Yen ga Hanggam ga Thongba -Machal Apouba Haap-paga( Chicken cooked with Mustard leaves)

To avoid all the reading , mind maps, writing, referencing etcetera...etcetera and to divert my mind I decided to cooked my fav. chicken dish the other day, one of the recipes invented purely out of desperation ...for some reason I was not able to make chicken   the way my cousin back home makes it, the very typical Meitei style chicken or "Yen Thongba" in Meiteilon cooked on iron kadhai (which according to me is one of the best chicken curry in the whole world) is one of my all time favorite dish and it taste even better if cooked on fire wood and not on gas. I have done few changes to the original recipe to suit my taste and added few ingredients, one of the most important ingredient is the "Machal-Apouba" a mix of masala available only in Manipur and made by this SHG group located in Imphal, I am a great fan of the "Machal" brand and got almost 2 dozen with me. The recipe and pics are below:

Ingredients:

• 500 gm chicken.
• 1 onion
• 4-5 garlic cloves.
• 4-5 green chilles
• Ginger- 2/3 inches long
• 4-5 leaves of hanggam.
• 2 potato
• Bay leaves (Tej patta)
• 1/2 tbsp turmeric powder.
• Machal (1/3 of the packet is used)
• 3-4 Tbsp cooking oil.
• Coriander leaves to garnish. 
• Salt to taste.

Method:

• Marinate the chicken for 20-30 mins with salt, turmeric powder, chille powder and 1 tbsp oil. 
• In a deep frying pan add oil and once its smoking hot add the bay leaves and chopped garlic. Fry for few mins and add the chopped onion and green chillies. Fry for 4-5 mins on low flame.
• Once the onion turns golden brown add the potato's and ginger and cook with the lid covered on low flame for 10-15 mins.
• Add the marinated chicken and cook with the led covered on low  flame. Add 1/4 tbsp of Machal apouba and mix it well with the chicken. Remember to stir it every few mins so that the chicken is not burned on one side.
• Once the chicken is half cooked add turmeric powder, 1/4  tbsp of Machal apouba and mix it well. Continue cooking on low flame.
• Add 2 cups of  boiling hot water in the chicken, increase the heat and bring it to a boil. Check the potato's and once the potato's are cooked add the hanggam, cover the led and cook for few mins 4-5 mins. Make sure that the hanggam is not over cooked
• Add some more machal apouba, salt to taste and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. 
• Serve hot with rice and eromba.

Ingredients

A slice of I amsterdam

My impending desire of visiting and taking pics @ the famous Museumplein, Amsterdam was fulfilled yesterday. I visited Amsterdam  after two years, the last time I was here me and my best fren 'AN' walked  the length and breadth of this very, very lively city, mainly because we were on a shoe string budget but this time me and my frens SS & CT took tram and visited Van Gogh Museum and few other tourist attractions and made full use of our Museum card (which we got made last month and never used it). To reach Museumplein we took tram no 5 from the Tram stop near the Dam Squire and go off @  Hobbemastraat station, this station is very close to the Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum and the Vondol Park.

Visiting Van Gogh Museum was truly a unique experience, some of the paintings were too beautiful. We spend almost 2 hrs there but I do plan to visit it again....next time on a bright sunny day.

If you are visiting Amsterdam do not miss visiting these places.