B4 THE DAILY GAZETTE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2013 LIFE& ARTS WWW.DAILYGAZETTE.COM FOOD Forget the mix; best pancakes from scratch “From the SCCC Kitchen” offers healthier — we make a raspberry 3 tablespoons melted butter (or tastes from Schenectady County From the SCCC sauce for the pancakes.” vegetable oil) Community College’s culinary arts Kitchen The sauce is simply made. 1 cup milk program. Today, technical specialist Raspberries are mixed with sugar. 1 cup of fl our Robert L. Payne II (chef at his family’s When a liquid forms, the mixture The Bears’ Steakhouse in Duanesburg) is placed into a sieve lined with For raspberry sauce: begins a four-part series on breakfast “A lot of times, when I’m cheesecloth and squeezed into a 1 cup fresh raspberries, washed favorites. First up are pancakes with entertaining, I’ll even make pancakes bowl. Honey and fresh mint are other (or 1 cup frozen raspberries) in advance,” Payne said. “I’ll do them 1 raspberry sauce. options for sauce additives. ⁄4 cup sugar (more or less, on a griddle so they brown up really Some folks prefer fruit or other depending on individual taste) BY JEFF WILKIN nice. I’ll put them on a sheet pan on sweets on the insides of their Gazette Reporter parchment and I just keep them in the pancakes. Blueberries and chocolate For pancakes, blend the eggs, oven on warm and they stay so nice.” chips are options. baking powder, salt and sugar into a obert Payne loves to see people Payne has other tips for top cakes. “We had one student who took smooth batter. Add the butter, milk making hot cakes from scratch. One, the griddle must be very hot. raisins and she plumped them up with and fl our. Mix briefl y into a smooth R “The biggest thing is, “And people, you have to brown Marsala wine,” Payne said. “With the batter. Pour onto a hot griddle or hot everyone is so afraid to make a them on one side,” Payne said. “You Marsala wine and plumped raisins, sauté pan. Flip over each cake after homemade batter or a waffl e batter,” just can’t fl ip them. People play with she sautéed some apples, just some the edges form and are golden brown. Payne said. “They get so stuck on them, they’ll take a spatula and go this chunks of apples with the Marsala Finish off in about 1 to 2 minutes. convenience of Bisquick and premade way and go that way. You’ve got to let wine. She folded in the plumped For sauce, place the raspberries and pancake mixes. It’s just a few staple them cook thoroughly on one side.” raisins and apples — beautiful fl avor.” sugar in a bowl. Rest until a liquid is items and you should have them. A tip-top cake deserves a terrifi c formed. Put this mixture through a sieve You’ve got your fl our, you’ve got topping. Maple syrup isn’t always the PANCAKES WITH lined with cheesecloth. Squeeze over a your sugar. You don’t have to use fi rst choice. RASPBERRY SAUCE MARC SCHULTZ/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER bowl until all the juice is extracted. buttermilk; you can use regular milk.” “I love maple syrup if it’s true, 2 eggs A simple raspberry sauce is set to dress up 1 Batter can be mixed ahead of time traditional, homemade maple syrup,” 1 ⁄2 tablespoons baking powder Reach Gazette reporter Jeff Wilkin at these pancakes — buttermilk in the foreground 3 and stored in the refrigerator for later Payne said. “I hate the fake stuff. ⁄4 teaspoon salt 395-3124 or at wilkin@dailygazette. and chocolate chip behind. use. A twist, if you want to do a little 2 tablespoons sugar com. Surprise your valentine by making your own chocolates BY MINDY YOUNG Gazette Copy Editor ove is in the air . or is that the scent of panic? Valentine’s Day is almost here, and surely, there Lare plenty of signifi cant others out there who feel a bit frantic, wondering what they should do for their sweetheart for this special day. A card? (That’s a good start.) A romantic dinner out? (Always a nice idea.) Maybe lingerie? (Guys, don’t do it — we both know that gift is really for you, not for us.) Perhaps a big, heart-shaped In & Out box of chocolates? Ah, chocolate. Chocolate and of the Valentine’s Day go together like turkey and Thanksgiving. And Kitchen why not? After all, chocolate has long been rumored to be an aph- rodisiac, and this is supposed to be a celebration of love. Those are only rumors, though: Most researchers don’t think that the amounts of tryptophan (a building block of serotonin, a brain chemical tied to arousal) and phenylethylamine (a chemical released in the brain when you fall in love) present in chocolate are great enough to produce an aphrodisiac effect. Then again, it might just be that giving someone some- thing as delicious as chocolate makes them more happy and relaxed, which could lead to . well, you know. DECADENT AND SIMPLE If nothing else, chocolate is a great way to show that STACEY LAUREN-KENNEDY/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER you care about someone. Most people love chocolate, and besides that, dark chocolate contains antioxidants, Maria Lloyd of Maria’s Peruvian Delights tends to Jessica Kiernan of Glenville at the Key Hall expansion area of the Schenectady Greenmarket. which can help prevent heart disease, and plant phe- “These are all Peruvian dishes, with a little fusion of American and with Peruvian seasonings,” says Lloyd, who grew up in Peru. nols, which lower your blood pressure. So if you give someone dark chocolate, you’re looking out for their health — these effects, however, haven’t been found from eating milk chocolate or white chocolate. An even better way to show someone you care is to give them homemade chocolates, rather than just grab- bing a box of Russell Stover candy off a grocery-store shelf. True, making some of those fancy- fi lled choco- lates can be tricky and time-consuming. I’ve tried it, and Like an indoor picnic while the results were good, they perhaps weren’t good enough to justify all of that work (not to mention scrub- bing down every sticky surface in my kitchen afterward). But chocolate truffl es are both decadent and simple. You can make the fi lling in the microwave if you want, More people fl ocking to inviting atmosphere and you can even use chocolate chips instead of chop- ping up chocolate. Keep in mind that 1 cup of chips is 1 about 6 ounces, so you’ll need about 1 ⁄3 cups of chips. of expanded Schenectady Greenmarket And as for the coating, you can spare yourself the work of tempering chocolate so that it sets up perfectly hard and smooth and shiny; even chocolatiers sometimes roll BY KAREN BJORNLAND dors. Near the State Street entrance to Key Hall, theirs in cocoa powder instead. Or if you really want Gazette Reporter “Key Hall is such a beautiful place. And our cus- Robin Brown of Schenectady’s Café Nola, pushes a smooth, chocolate-candy shell, use chocolate candy tomers are fi nally getting a chance to sit down.” lemons through a press, adds sugar and shakes it ave you tried the quinoa chili? It’s The half-dozen or so vendors that sell prepared up. melts. These can be found in any craft store, are easy to incredible.” work with and don’t taste too bad. If you’re using a thin food in Key Hall like the new addition, too. “We make the lemonade right in front of folks,” Tim Barker loves the homemade “The Greenmarket is very good. People are get- Brown says. “This week, it was passion fruit. layer over a ball of rich chocolate ganache, you probably Peruvian food at Schenectady won’t even taste the coating much anyway. ‘H ting to know the restaurant,” says Shami Waheed, Sometimes it’s guava.” Greenmarket. As he waits in line, the Schenectady owner and chef of Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant on On a recent Sunday, her Cajun/New Orleans resident eyes the cabbage and chorizo empanadas, CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES Jay Street in Schenectady. menu featured blackened catfi sh etouffee over the fried bananas and pork tamales. Every Sunday, Waheed brings vegan, vegetarian dirty rice, mac and cheese and cheddar corn 8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped Finally, he makes his decision. 1 and some chicken dishes to Proctors. bread. ⁄2 cup heavy cream “Yucca,” he says. “Today, I’m trying the yucca.” 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or another fl avor of your “Everything is mostly vegetarian,” she says. “I have a different menu all the time,” says At a nearby table, Faith Weldon of Glenville has Spinach and lentils, simmered with onions, Brown, who makes the food with her husband, choosing) selected an Eastern European dish for her lunch. Cocoa powder or chocolate candy melts garlic, cumin and tomatoes, is a favorite with her “Spanakopita. It’s delicious,” Weldon says, customers. “Our rice pudding is very popular.” See GREENMARKET, page B5 plunging her fork into the thick, warm layers of Place the chocolate and cream in a bowl and micro- spinach, cheese and phyllo. wave for 45 seconds at a time, stirring frequently, un- Customers “I had a burek last week,” she says. “I come here sit down to til the chocolate is all melted and the mixture comes every Sunday to have lunch at the market.” enjoy food together and is smooth.