Gochu-jeon (Stuffed Chili Jeon)

Gochu-jeon lives or dies before it reaches the pan, with the knife and the drying cloth. Split the chili cleanly, scrape out the seeds and ribs, pat the inside dry, and dust it with just enough flour so the filling grips. Skip that little white dust and the meat slips out like a child avoiding chores. My teacher would look at the plate once and know who was lazy.

Use mild Korean put-gochu (green chilies) or oi-gochu (crisp cucumber chilies), the long green ones you can eat raw without pain. This is holiday jeon, the kind that sits beside dongtae-jeon (pan-fried pollock) and wanjajeon (small meat patties) at Chuseok or Seollal, but it also belongs in a lunch box or at a potluck because it travels neatly and tastes good warm or at room temperature. The pepper should still taste green. The filling seasons the meat without making the whole bite taste like soy.

Notebook 41 says 14 peppers for 400 grams of filling, and that is the number I trust when the table is full. Tonight it asks you for patient prep, not difficult work: seed carefully, squeeze the tofu dry, press the filling flat, fry meat-side down first, then turn once. Write it down. Memory is a borrowed bowl.