All Shuk Up: Mujadra Basmati Rice Recipe, Vegetarian Jerusalem Mixed Grill, and More!

Hey hey happy Friday! Ah, it's nice to not have the pressures of work (it's been a long week, so I'm slacking today sort of but not really).

So I've been going all in on Instagram these days, and I've fallen deeply in love with the stories function. So, if you're on Instagram, make sure you're following me at @TheChaviva. I like how quick and easy it is to engage and interact with people, and it just fits in a bit better for me these days with all that's going on than long-form blogging does. I know, it's tough, but there we are.

First up: All Shuk Up! This is my new favorite obsession ... it's a company that importants goodies straight from Machane Yehudah (aka the shuk) in Jerusalem. Go there, buy all the things, and enjoy. Here are some of our favorites:

Shakshuka spice mix!

• Dried fruits: clementines, mangoes, strawberries, mango balls (like eating mango candy)
• Dried apples and cinnamon: I ate this on greek yogurt and HOLY CANNOLI. New favorite thing.
• Meurav Yerushalmi spice: recipe below!
• Moroccan Fish spice
• Shakshukah spice: using this tonight for Shabbat dinner and I'm super stoked. 
• Pistachio mix
• Za'atar Blueberry Pesto mix: This is ... just ... I have no words. It's SO good. Mix it into rice or quinoa, throw it on some hummus, eat it plain, toss it with some pasta, everything is possible. 
• Mujadra mix: see a recipe below!

I ordered a bunch of the $2.50 samplers of the dried fruit, and my kids were super jazzed with the ones mentioned above. They weren't huge fans of the watermelon or the banana rolls, but I thought they were both pretty awesome. 

Pistachio mix. DROOL!

If you place an order with them, mention my name in the comments so they know how you found them! There's also a discount code right now just in time for Tu B'Shevat. Enter TBSHVT at checkout for free shipping.

And now ... recipes!

So the mujadra mix is one of my husband's favorites. On my recent trip to Israel, I mulled back a TON of stuff from the shuk, including a mujadra mix that came pre-mixed with rice in it. This one doesn't have the rice in it, but it was easy enough to throw together a recipe for the Instant Pot. 

Mujadra Basmati Rice

Ingredients

• 1 cup All Shuk Up mujadra mix (lentils, onions, spices)
• 1 cup white basmati rice
• 2 1/2 cups water
• Dash of salt

Directions

• Spray the IP with your oil of choice to prevent sticking.
• Throw everything in the IP. 
• Cover and make sure the vent is sealed. 
• Cook for 10 minutes on high pressure.
• Let pressure release naturally or do a quick release >> it's up to you
• Enjoy! (I like to serve this with salmon.)

Mr. T would eat this every day of the week if he could, no lie. This will be one thing I have in stock always. He misses Israeli cuisine (he did live there for like 10 years), and so do I!

Next up is another spice mix Mr. T asked me to pick up: meurav Yerushalmi mix. One of the most popular meals you can get in Israel basically anywhere is the Jerusalem Mixed Grill: chicken hearts, spleens and liver mixed with bits of lamb cooked on a flat grill, seasoned with onion, and a ton of spices. 

Now, we're vegetarian at home but he's been jonesing for this, so I put on my kosher-cooking thinking cap and came up with this: Jerusatarian Mixed Grill. It's a vegetarian twist (really it's vegan) on the Mixed Grill using the meurav Yerusahlmi mix!

The proteins were Gardein's Beefless Crumbles + Chickpeas + Gardein's Chick'n Scallopini, and the recipe looks roughly something like this: 

[I wanted to put a picture here, but it's not the most photogenic of foods HA!]

Jerusatarian Mixed Grill

Ingredients

• 1 bag Gardein's Beefless Crumbles
• 1 cup chickpeas
• 3 Gardein Chick'n Scallopini
• 1 yellow onion thinly sliced
• Plenty of All Shuk Up's meurav Yerushalmi mix

Directions

• Fry up/sauté the yellow onion until it's brown and caramelized and set aside.
• Cook Beefless Crumbles according to package directions. 
• Cook Chick'n Scallopini according to package directions and then slice them into strips or chunks. 
• In a large wok-style or saute pan, mix together the onions, crumbles, chickpeas, chick'n, and meurav Yerushalmi mix until thoroughly combined. 
• Serve with pita, hummus, tahini, Israeli pickles, green olives, baba ganoush, and more. 

Are you going to order from All Shuk Up? Have you already ordered? What are you most excited about? 

The Shimmer and Awe of Israel

The thing about aliyah is that a lot of people move to Israel and spend the first few weeks or months or even years marveling at the awesomeness that is Israel. For those who show up and move to Tel Aviv or another very "American" city (I describe Tel Aviv as Miami with Hebrew), perhaps the shimmer of awe isn't so bright, but for those who move to Jerusalem or other holy cities or superbly historic locales where tour groups in matching hats tend to outnumber actual citizens, there's a sense of wonder, I think.

Old meets new in Jerusalem with the light rail (the smoothest ride ever) and the historic buildings set up by old-world bajillionaires and formerly occupying governments like the British. You can hop off the rail and shop at GAP, Crocs, and other major brands at the Mamila Mall, whose secret is that when the Temple is rebuilt, the shops will become the locale for purchasing your sacrifices. One day you're buying a shirt bedecked with Swarovski crystals, the next you're picking up a few goats and some fruit for your sin offering!

Going to the shuk aka Machane Yehuda aka the giant outdoor market with tiny alleyways and a bustle of movement and smells of fish and cracked-open pomegranate and spices feels quintessentially Middle Eastern. I'll admit that every time I step into the shuk, there's a feeling of moving out of a space I've known -- the fluorescent lights of a midwestern grocery store to the screams of men behind piles of bananas and avocados and melons trying to lure customers in. At the same time, the shuk is filled with modern amenities like Aroma coffee shop where you can get your fanciest of coffee beverages or Re:Bar the new froyo/smoothie chain with every fruit and vegetable combo tossed with your own shot of wheatgrass if you prefer (not for the gluten-free folks).

The variety of people, too, seem to paint the best picture of old-meets-new, east-meets-west. The men, in particular, seem to offer the stark contrast of ideologies and observances the best, with men in black-and-white seen as the old world, modesty at it's utmost and modern Israelis in blue jeans and button downs or T-shirts of brands that are too expensive in Israel. A mix of Ethiopians and Filipinos (often seen pushing the elderly), speakers of Yiddish and French, Anglos that stick out like a sore thumb most of the time, strollers filled to the brim with children, screaming babies, and old men shuffling about stroking their beards, women moving faster than the speed of light, teenagers at pastry shops wasting the day. I recently saw a Hassidic man on a motorized bicycle, black and white, beard and peyot flying in the wind, hat tightly on his head, speeding up Yafo in between the light rail trains moving in either direction, his bike making the sound of a tired engine. It was a sight to be seen.

I don't know what it is about this place, but the awe I feel for it is not the type of awe that people normally feel when they see something brilliant or unexpected for the first time. It's more muted, more internal, more personal. It's like my neshama has been here the whole time, like my body and eyes and nose and ears are simply catching up. Nothing surprises me -- no scent or site, no inconvenience or frustration. For me, it's all part of a continuous tapestry that I am lucky enough to experience day after day. It's just life, and I'm living it.

In many ways, I think I am like my father, and I think my little brother Joe also takes much of this on in his personality. A sense of calm, of rolling with the punches, of appreciating people and scenery and history. For all of my neurotic moments and tendency toward being a bit hot headed, I've never been the kind of person who feels a sense of perpetual urgency. I can sit at the bank for two hours, and it doesn't bother me. I can sit outside on a park bench and watch the world spin fast around me and be contented with watching the people, the breeze through the trees, the cats swirling around the Jerusalem stone, and I'm content. I can play the part, of course, of the irritable, impatient, rude Israeli passerby. That's what we call survival skills, folks. In New York City, I drove like a NYC cab driver out of necessity.

But I'm simpler than that, despite what most may think. I appreciate silence, I appreciate the slow and patient approach to life. And in that way, I'll never be Israeli. I will speak the language, eat the food, shop in the stores, relish in the smells and sounds, but I'll never lose my patience or internal awe for Eretz Yisrael.

Why? This place is a gift. No matter how many people fight over it, no matter the amount of tension and unrest, this land means so much to so many people crossing the bounds of gender, religion, creed, and color. If there is any place and any time in which I should be thankful above all else for what my life has become, it is now, and it is here.

Contrasts are beautiful, and Israel is and will always be a land of the starkest, most briliant contrasts.

I Was An Israelite for 10 Days!

I lived in Israel for 10 days in Nachlaot, a neighborhood that includes the Machane Yehuda "shuk" and Ben Yehuda Street, that tourist trap with delicious confections and kitschy shopping. I say lived because that's what I did. There was an apartment on Yosef Chaim where I planted my head every night (except for a Shabbos spent out in Ramat Shlomo), it's where my clothes were hung, it was also where my toothbrush was. I didn't feel like I was visiting, I was living. I was an Israeli for a mere 10 days, and it felt marvelous.

I woke up each day and got ready in the world's smallest shower, brushed my teeth, walked on the cold floor, kissed the mezuzah, and schlepped off to one of the Yehudahs for breakfast. There were pastries, bagels, and interesting concoctions that you'd never find in the U.S. One morning I ate at Aroma in the "shuk," starting the day with an Iced Coffee (that's actually more like a frappucino -- there is no real iced coffee in Israel) and a sandwich comprising gigantic slices of white bread, an omelet, tomatoes, pickles, lettuce, and cheese. Oh, and there was also some cream cheese on there. Yes, you read that right. For breakfast. And? It was outstandingly delicious.

After food, Tuvia and I would schlep to our destination -- Caesaria, Tzfat, the Old City, the Jerusalem zoo, you name it. We ended up walking almost everywhere we went, but considering how much decadent food we ate there, I didn't shed a single pound. Thank you sufganiyot! In fact, I noshed a Roladen one that was Melon-Vodka flavored. That, folks, was rich and beautiful. After shopping and photos and a lot (we're talking knee-breaking) of schlepping, we'd hit up some deliciously kosher restaurant for lunch. This was probably the biggest treat of all -- kosher restaurants at every turn! Dairy! Meat! You name it. We ate a a falafel place, a schwarma place, an amazing burger place next to the Kotel, and even an Argentinian steakhouse near Ben Yehuda (it really wasn't that good). Our evenings were packed with meeting friends, family, and moonlighting at the Kotel, followed by more schwarma. Then, at night I'd crawl into bed, listening to the sounds of the small street, and -- as usual -- not sleep.

One of my favorite nights was spent listening to the street cats in an interesting chorus. At first, it was a loud, howling MEOWWWWWW. Then, surprisingly, came a wailing baby. I'm assuming the baby was woken up by this incredibly loud cat, but I can't be sure. Either way, the cat and the baby exchanged howls for about 10 minutes. Then, about two hours later, the cat was at it again -- this time with a dog. It was MEOWWWWWW! BARKKKKK! MEOWWWWWW! BARRKKKK! It got to the point where the choruses were too amusing to sleep, so I laughed. At every  hour of the day in that little room in Nachlaot, I heard the conversations of tourists, men singing outloud to themselves, children running along speaking Hebrew at a rate that I can only dream to reach. There were bikes and scooters zipping by in the alley, and one night the people across the way had their door wide open while they wined and dined, Fido sitting on the stoop watching passersby.

Spending so much time in the city -- I'd say about 3/5 of our time there was spent in Jerusalem proper -- allowed me to really experience what it must be like to live there. We walked through Machane Yehuda (the shuk) almost every day, including early in the morning when vegetables and bread were arriving on carts and in the evening when men were checking receipts and closing shop. The smells and the textures and the colors were something I could learn to live with, without a doubt. To be able to shop in a fresh market like that daily? Wow. Talk about a privilege. Also, being able to walk to the Kotel at midnight without a care or fear in the world was something unbelievably powerful. Come to think of it, being able to walk anywhere in Jerusalem at any hour felt so empowering. I felt safer in Israel than I ever felt in Chicago, Washington, or even Lincoln. I stood at a bus stop on a busy street at 12:30 in the morning, waiting a half-hour for a bus, people walking by, zipping by in cars and on bikes, and I didn't think twice about how late it was or where I was. I just knew I was safe.

After just two days, I felt relaxed. I knew the city from my trip there last December -- I knew where certain shops were, I knew how to get places, my internal compass was set back to Israel in no time. I felt so proud leading Tuvia all over the place in confidence. Jerusalem is my city, it's city plan mapped on my heart. It was a beautiful feeling. Did I mention that Jerusalemites love my hair? Yes, I got a lot of compliments. That, too, was a beautiful feeling!

I have much to say about the rest of the trip, outside of Jerusalem, but it will take some time. My photos are up (mostly) on Facebook, and I'll be throwing some up on Flickr, too. There are a lot -- about 1,001 of them. A lot from the Wedding, a lot from Caesaria, and an abundance of them from everything in between.

Stay tuned, as always! (And yes, in the shuk that is a baby being carted around in a ... well ... cart.) I leave you with this stellar Kashurt certificate to one of America's beloved restaurants at which, yes, Tuvia and I ate. And, for the record, it wasn't that great.