Hobak-juk (Korean Pumpkin Porridge)

Hobak-juk belongs to autumn, when the market piles up old pumpkins and sweet danhobak (Korean kabocha squash), their skins hard enough to make a young cook lose patience. Cook the month you're standing in. In late autumn this porridge tastes full with very little sugar, because the squash has done its work in the field before it reaches your pot.

People call this simple food, and it is. Simple does not mean careless. The porridge lives or dies by texture: the pumpkin must be cooked until it collapses, the glutinous rice flour must be stirred in as a slurry so it thickens cleanly, and the saealsim (small rice dumplings) must be small enough to cook through before the porridge scorches. A heavy pot and a patient spoon matter more than any decoration.

My teacher Master Seong-nyeo made us taste the pumpkin before adding sugar. If the squash was sweet, she used almost none. If it was watery, she changed the dish instead of bullying it with sweetness. For this pot, start with 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Write down what your pumpkin needed. Memory is a borrowed bowl.