It’s a bit difficult teaching something that you yourself have never learned in a proper setting. Danya and I are in the midst of teaching our 9^th! Food Photography and Styling Course, and while Danya studied Photography in an academic setting, I was never taught formally how to “Food Style”. Yes, I assisted a well-known stylist for about a year, being on set, but mostly washing dishes and helping to prepare the food. Once I started working on my own, the trade just sort of came to me. And I learned a lot along the way, through my own trials and errors and by countless hours of searching through magazines, books and the internet to find inspiration.

So now, while teaching, I come across many times the question “So, what’s the rule with: napkins, sizes of plates, silverware cropped/not cropped, iron tablecloths or not, centered items vs. not centered, etc. Some of the time I’m able to give an answer of things that I call rules, but other times, I simply have to say to my students “there’s no rule, you just have to follow how your eye feels when looking”.

Another question students often ask is if there are any foods which I do not like to shoot. And I don’t have a long list, but one of the things I hate to shoot is stuffed peppers. It’s a common dish here in Israel, and I’ve had the challenge of shooting them a few times, for both magazines and cookbooks. I can’t explain exactly what it is I don’t like about photographing them- maybe it has something to do with the fact that the always look really messy, or maybe because I never really liked the way they taste, but I just never was satisfied with the way they photograph. Danya knows how I feel about them, and despite the fact, she insisted on shooting them for the blog. She told me she had perfected the recipe, and I as always, was pretty skeptical.

And then I tasted them and something changed. They were really damn good. Really well seasoned, not overcooked like so many I had tried before.  The peppers had totally kept their form and their color, and from that came my inspiration.  And so, now, when a student asked me what the rule is on things that don’t photograph well- I just have to say-there is no rule.

Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients for 10 servings:

10 medium sized red bell peppers

For the stuffing:

1½ cups long grained white rice

1 onion, finely chopped

½ cup parsley, finely chopped

½ cup cilantro, finely chopped

1 pound/500 grams ground beef

1 tablespoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1 teaspoon baharat

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the sauce:

1 large can, chopped tomatoes (800 grams, 28 oz.)

1½ tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3 cups boiling water

Preparation:

1. Cut off the tops of the peppers and clean them out membranes and seeds. Set aside.
2. Soak rice in a large uncovered bowl filled with boiling water for 10 minutes. Strain rice and set aside.
3. Mix together all of the stuffing ingredients until well combined and then add the rice and continue mixing, with your hands until combined.
4. Fill each pepper with the stuffing, making sure to leave space for the rice to expand (don’t stuff in as much can fit in). Place the peppers in a large pan, so that they fit snug one next to the other.
5. In a large bowl, mix together all of the sauce ingredients and then carefully pour over the peppers. Cover pan and cook on medium heat for one hour, while basting every 25 minutes. To make sure the peppers are completely done, take a small taste of the rice from inside one of the peppers.