Feed a desire to eat seasonally with pork-apple entree

Fall offers plenty of flavor with good nutrition.

The abundance of food shipped in from all corners of the globe to American supermarkets can make it difficult to learn how to eat with the seasons.

Consumers can eat ears of sweet corn in May or bundles of asparagus in October. But a lack of seasonal awareness affects not only the freshness and flavor of the foods we slip into our shopping carts but also their nutritional value.

That philosophy is distilled in Alice Waters' "The Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook" (Random House).

"If you feed your appetite with second-best foodstuffs for most of the year, you will miss the joyous experience of savoring the tomato during its peak season," the influential Berkeley, Calif.-based chef/owner wrote in her 1982 cookbook.

Waters' insistence on eating seasonally has influenced a generation of chefs and food editors across the country.

Today, the Kansas City Star's recipe for Apple Glazed Pork Chops pairs two classic fall ingredients. Available year-round, both are at their peak of flavor now: Apples are harvested from September to November, and pork is in peak supply between October and February.

Apples are a nutritional powerhouse. Not only are they a good source of vitamins A and C, they also contain flavonoids, a powerful antioxidant compound that has been shown to fend off cardiovascular disease, lung disease, diabetes and cancer.

Although not typically thought of as a health food, today's pork cuts are much leaner than a century ago and contain one-half to one-fifth of the fat they did 25 years ago, according to Harold McGee, a food scientist and author of "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen" (Scribner).

Apple Glazed Pork Chops

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 pound boneless center-cut pork chops

1 small sweet yellow onion

1 tart red apple (such as Jonathan or Rome), cored and thinly sliced

1 tart green apple (such as Granny Smith), cored and thinly sliced

3/4 cup apple juice

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Combine thyme, nutmeg, salt and pepper and sprinkle evenly over both sides of chops. Cut onion into 16 to 20 nearly paper-thin wedges. Cook pork chops and onions in oil until chops are well browned on both sides, 7 to 9 minutes.

Add apples and apple juice to skillet. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 25 minutes or until pork and apples are tender. Remove chops to warm serving platter. With a slotted spoon, lift apples and onions from skillet, leaving drippings, and arrange around pork. Increase heat to medium-high. Cook, uncovered, until juices have reduced to about half of original volume, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in balsamic vinegar and cook, uncovered, 1 minute. Spoon sauce over pork, apples and onions.

Yield: 4 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 278 calories (30 percent from fat), 9 grams total fat (3 grams saturated), 67 milligrams cholesterol, 27 grams carbohydrates, 22 grams protein, 189 milligrams sodium, 4 grams dietary fiber.

Shopping tip

For the freshest apples and juice, look for locally grown offerings, often found in the produce department.

Cooking tip

For a thicker sauce, reduce the apple juice mixture for several minutes over low heat.

Recipe developed for the Kansas City Star by professional home economists Kathryn Moore and Roxanne Wyss.