dsm Dish - September 26, 2025

Recipe reviews: pork chops and cheesy biscuits

By Haley Scarpino

There's something about fall that feels like a reset button for me, and I spend more time in the kitchen. Summer produce requires very little cooking, so dinners are quick and easy, especially when it's too hot for the oven or even the stovetop. But fall invites slow and cozy dinners that warm you from the inside out.

I wanted to mark the turning point with a meal that captures what I love most about Iowa fall, starting with two recipes from the New York Times: David Tanis' Pork Chops With Apples and Cider and Erin Jean McDowell's Fluffy Cheddar Biscuits.

These two recipes, borrowed from the treasure trove of New York Times Cooking, have quickly become my fall staples. They're unfussy enough for a weeknight but special enough to serve to friends and family.

How I make the pork chops
I love this recipe because it really feels like Iowa with pork chops and apples, but I made a few simple changes to bump up the flavor and keep things nice and easy.

First, I removed whole spices. Peppercorns, allspice berries and cloves are lovely and fragrant, but they're pricey, and I don’t use them often.

I was worried that adding warm spices directly to the pork might be too intense, so I mixed the spices into the flour to cut the flavors without erasing them.

I seasoned the pork chops well with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper before dredging them in the flour. I used about a half cup of flour and then added ½ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, ½ teaspoon of ground allspice and ¼ teaspoon of ground cloves, along with a big pinch of kosher salt.

Next, I added shallots to the apples. I can't resist an allium, and shallots pair beautifully with apples, sage and pork.

I also used a lot more butter than the recipe suggested. I started with about 2 tablespoons for the shallots and apples. I then added 2 tablespoons of butter before cooking the pork. When the pork was finished cooking, I did not remove the butter from the pan as the recipe suggested. That butter holds so much flavor, I couldn't dream of discarding it.

My final tweak: cornstarch instead of potato starch. There is nothing wrong with potato starch, but I don't keep it on hand and wasn't going to hunt it down when I had an excellent thickener in my pantry. I didn't adjust the measurements, and the cornstarch worked well. My pan sauce was thick, glossy and delicious.

My one recommendation is to use good cider. I used a local Honeycrisp Cider from Wilson's Orchard. It has excellent flavor, and I love using local products whenever possible. I finished the sauce with an additional splash of the hard cider instead of using calvados or Cognac. Again, both of those ingredients are great, but I don't keep them on hand, and I wasn't willing to hunt them down.

The pork was incredible. I loved the subtle seasoning of the warm spices. The apples, shallots and sage were flavorful and held just the right amount of crispness. I love how the apples became caramelized but retained their crispness.

And the pan sauce stole the show. It was so flavorful, and it bridged the apple and pork. As always, make sure you season and taste as you go.

How I make the biscuits

The cheddar biscuits were the perfect complement to the pork. I made them with an extra sharp cheddar, but in hindsight, I should have used Prairie Breeze from Milton Creamery. The sharp cheddar paired well with the apples, and the biscuits were perfect for soaking up the last of that pan sauce.

Otherwise, I made no adjustments to the biscuits. If you've never made biscuits, this is an easy recipe to start with. There are no complicated steps. You just need a large bowl and a wooden spoon. They are super easy and worth the effort.

As fall settles in, this meal is a simple way to enjoy the season's bounty and reminds us that the best meals aren't complicated. They're seasonal, cozy and made to be shared.

Haley Scarpino is a chef, home cook, recipe tester, food editor, and graduate of the Iowa Culinary Institute.

What's an ingredient you always keep on hand (or accidentally stockpile)?

“Alaska Spit Salt. It's a fabulous finishing salt that we discovered on a trip to Alaska. It's harvested straight from the Homer Spit (hence the name) and is made by this quirky small business known for its salty language. In addition to being great on meats, veggies and more, it brings back memories of one of my favorite family vacations. Plus, it's a great host gift, too!.”

— Nikki Syverson, principal, Isaacson-Syverson Consulting

Quick Bites

Hoyt Sherman Place: Work crews recently renovated the kitchen at the historic mansion. The roughly $600,000 project expands opportunities for chefs to prepare meals for events in the gallery and enables touring artists to prepare their own meals, if they’re so inclined.

Food hall: Preliminary plans are in the works to open a local food hall with multiple vendors in a converted warehouse. Organizer Ashley Watts hopes to raise $35,000 via Kickstarter by Oct. 4 to get the ball rolling, according to the Des Moines Register.

World Food Prize: Mariangela Hungria will receive this year’s prize “for her extraordinary scientific advancements in biological nitrogen fixation, transforming the sustainability of soil health and crop nutrition for tropical agriculture.” The ceremony is set for Oct. 23 at the Capitol.

Note to Goldilocks: Next month’s wine dinner at Aura is set for Oct. 16 and is inspired by “The Bear,” the adrenaline-charged TV series about a restaurant in Chicago. Here in Clive, the menu includes Sydney’s cola-braised short ribs, Marcus’ donuts and other fan favorites.

Events

Today and Saturday: Oktoberfest Des Moines moves this year to a new location in The District at Prairie Trail in Ankeny.

Saturday: The Smoke & Sip BBQ Competition at Middlebrook Farm in Cumming features meat from the Good Butcher and VandeRose Farms, fixin’s from “Master Chef” champ Grant Gillon, and drinks from Lua Brewing, Wilson’s Orchard and Capital Call Vintners.

Saturday and Sunday: Iowa’s Latino Heritage Festival returns to Western Gateway Park for another weekend of music, culture and food from Central and South America.

Oct. 1: Fresh from the Farm: Garlic showcases the main ingredient in three courses at a dinner at the historic Wallace House in Sherman Hill.

Oct. 10: Winefest’s Pork & Pinot event, presented by the Iowa Pork Producers at Middlebrook Farm, features porky morsels prepared by local chefs and paired with various pinots.

Oct. 11-12: Madison County’s Covered Bridge Festival features plenty of fall treats around the Winterset square. (Don’t miss the apple fritters at The Bakery Unlimited.)

Meet Marti Payseur of Thistle's Summit

By Anthony Taylor

If you know anything at all about Marti Payseur, the owner and creative genius behind Thistle’s Summit, it’s probably that she’s a baker. And sure, that’s mostly by design: As the driving force behind one of the only completely vegan, completely gluten-free bakeries on God’s green Earth, she’s gotten very good at promoting her goods. Her oatmeal cream pies have devotees literally following her to her car as she packs up after events.

But “baker” is more than a profession to Payseur, it’s an ethos. Before baking was her livelihood, it was her love language. It’s her happy place, her peace, and her lasting impression on this city and the people who find themselves walking through the bakery door, pulled in by the baked goods or even just the magnetic charm of the woman herself.

Payseur (pronounced PAY-soor) is 6-foot-2, blonde and blessed with a winsome smile and a unique brand of confidence honed through years in a professional kitchen. She’s the kind of person who can dominate a space. In the early days of Thistle’s Summit, at 340 S.W. Fifth St., she didn’t utilize that natural magnetism so much as she surgically weaponized it.

“I would just lie,” she said. “I’d hand out cream pies at farmers markets and say, ‘This is our signature item that everyone’s talking about.’ Nobody was talking about them. But now, if I take them off the menu for a season, people riot.”

Read more about Payseur at dsmdish.com.

Contributing writer Anthony Taylor profiles locals with interesting backgrounds and perspectives, including a podcaster, massage therapist, radio host, tattoo artist and burger maven.

Valley Junction’s farmers market season ended Thursday night with a fiery blast — specifically, a hot pepper contest sponsored by the Iowa Pepper Co., which concocts small batches of hot sauce in West Des Moines. For the third annual competition, brave (or numb?) contestants faced a lineup of locally grown peppers that sound like they could be pro wrestlers and/or drag queens: Lemon Spice Jalapeno, Khang Starr Lemon Starkist, Red Savina Habanero, Chocolate Leviathan Gnarly Scorpion and the scorching 7 Pot Yellow Brain Strain (which tops more than 1 million units on the Scoville heat scale).

This year’s champion was Derek McNerney of West Des Moines, who ate all five peppers and apparently did not burst into flames.