Gaji-jeon (가지전, Stuffed Eggplant Jeon)

At the late-summer market, choose eggplants that feel firm and light, with tight purple skin and pale flesh inside. Gaji-jeon belongs to that small season and to the holiday frying tray, especially Chuseok, when families make many kinds of jeon (pan-fried battered foods) and stack them between paper towels until the table is ready. It is not the loud dish. It disappears anyway.

The dish lives by the knife. Slit the eggplant into a fan but keep the hinge intact, salt it long enough to firm the flesh, then fill each pocket thinly. Notebook 41 says 18 to 20 grams of beef filling for one 2-inch piece of eggplant. More looks generous and cooks badly; the egg browns before the meat is done.

My teacher would tap the stuffed piece flat on the tray before it ever touched flour. 눈동냥, 귀동냥, borrowing with the eyes and ears. I watched first, then learned why: a flat filling cooks evenly, a dry surface holds the egg coat, and moderate heat turns the eggplant soft without turning the coating dark. Tonight this asks for patient hands, not clever hands. That is a fair bargain.