Meat-Stuffed Green Peppers (ピーマンの肉詰め, Piiman no Nikuzume)

Piiman is a summer pepper with a little bitterness left in it, and that small bitterness is why this dish works. Stuff it with pork and the pepper stops being a wrapper; it becomes the seasoning, cutting the meat's sweetness and the soy's salt. Choose peppers that are taut, glossy, and bright green, especially when they're at shun, from early summer into autumn. The ingredient is doing more than it admits.

Stuffed vegetables sound like careful work. This one is four plain motions: halve, dust, press, sear. The detail that decides it is the dusting. A little potato starch inside the pepper dries the slick wall, then turns tacky as the pork gives off juice, so the filling stays where you put it instead of sliding out like a badly behaved guest.

We brown the meat-side first and leave it alone until it forms a proper face. That browning gives flavor a heavy sauce would only cover, and it anchors the filling before the pepper softens under a lid. Then a thin tare of sake, soy, mirin, and a spoonful of dashi glosses the halves without hiding them. This is honmono home cooking: direct, useful, and better when you don't make it grand.