>> Today, I thought it would be fun to do a fresh spin on a Viennese classic, the Wiener schnitzel, topped with a green goddess salad bowl along with lemon-pepper leaf potatoes.

We'll also visit the charming town of Durnstein to sample apricot liqueur and a small family-owned winery to taste one of my favorite wines, Gruner Veltliner.

I love to travel the globe in search of new food and wine discoveries.

For me, it's about more than returning home with a handful of new recipes.

It's about taking the spirit of Austria... of Italy... of Greece... and of the Danube River... and injecting some of their magic into our everyday lives.

Food has a unique ability to transport us.

plates and places on our culinary journey together.

>> "Joanne Weir's Plates & Places" is brought to you by... >> With AmaWaterways, guests can climb... pedal... and journey beyond the beaten path while cruising on storied rivers across Europe.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

>> Our winemaking is the result of teamwork and patience.

Working together, we dedicate our best efforts with every vine, grape, and bottle.

Washington Vintners.

>> Since 1899, my family has shared our passion for everything that goes into our Mutti 100% Italian tomatoes.

Only tomatoes, only Mutti.

>> For baking, cooking, and snacks, California Figs from Valley Fig Growers.

>> Sometimes you just have to head to the source.

I'm here in Durnstein, known for its orchards full of apricots, some of the best in the world.

And since I'm a few weeks ahead of the season, I guess I'll just have to opt for the next best thing -- apricot liqueur from an excellent local producer.

Prost, as they say in Austria.

Floating down the Danube River in the Wachau Valley, this area, with its terraced vineyards draw true wine lovers searching out its world-renowned wine, Gruner Veltliner.

Just around the bend in the charming town of Durnstein, its namesake castle on the hill held King Richard the Lionheart captive for well over a year.

Boy, did he have a spectacular view.

The towns in the area date back to the 11th and 12th centuries, and this region is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

This is the elegant and Baroque Durnstein Abbey, where we'll stop by for an apricot brandy and liqueur tasting.

>> Before we go jumping into this, I have to warn you.

Because the first beverage we have here is apricot brandy, and we will not force you to drink this if you don't want to.

If you decide to taste it, be prepared for about 30, 40 percentage alcohol, 76 proof.

And please don't tell I didn't warn you.

But one thing is important.

The people normally, as soon as they get those glasses in their hands, they are taking them, they start to swirl, and then they smell.

And the swirling is something you should not do, simply because of the reason that alcohol in such a high concentration is very volatile.

It tends to evaporate easily.

And if you're swirling the glass, you're increasing the surface of the liquid, getting contact to oxygen, and this results in the interesting effect that the evaporating alcohol totally covers the gentle fruit flavors we have here.

Now you can find this out easily by yourself.

I will start to hand out all the glasses.

Take the glass, smell first from the not-swirled glass, and then swirl like you normally would do it with wine and where it's useful to do, by the way, and smell again.

I guess most of you will get the difference.

♪ >> Thank you.

Wow.

I can really smell the apricot.

>> Right here.

>> Thank you.

>> And as soon as you got the glasses, try that, what I was explaining.

Smell first from the not-swirled glass, and then swirl and smell again.

>> Mmm.

That's delicious.

Tastes like the essence of apricots.

>> Beside apricot brandy that we started with here, we are producing apricot liqueur, as well.

We will give you now our friend.

He's very kind.

He gives you another possibility to pour out if you do not want to drink, and I will refill the glasses with liqueur, and then you have to tell me which beverage you would prefer.

♪ Go ahead -- taste this, please.

And then you have to tell me which one that you prefer.

What a dumb question, huh?

[ Laughs ] Most of our international customers prefer the second, the liqueur.

It's smoother, softer, sweeter.

>> I love this.

Look at the color of this.

It's incredible.

♪ Beautiful.

It's like nectar.

It's just the nectar of the apricot.

Really beautiful drink.

I'm so inspired by the Durnstein apricots, I want to share with you this simple apricot sorbet with sparkling wine.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Now for my spin on Wiener schnitzel that literally means Viennese cutlet, a dish that is loved in Vienna but is also a national dish for all of Austria.

♪ I'm making Wiener schnitzel today with a twist.

I'm cruising down the Danube with my fellow passengers.

Are you guys having fun?

>> Yeah.

>> [ Laughs ] I'm starting with veal loin.

Beautiful, big piece of veal.

And what I want to do is just to cut this into about a 1- or 1 1/2-inch piece like this.

And then, I can set this aside.

Now, I like the cut side to be facing up.

I'm going to use a meat mallet, and I dip it into water.

And you're just going to pound that veal.

I'm using the flat side.

I wet the mallet so it doesn't tear the fibers of the meat.

You want to go slowly when you do this.

What I'm looking for is to make this all consistent -- probably about 3/8 of an inch thick.

So, this is finished at this point, and what I want to do next is, I want to bread it.

And I'm going to do this in three different stages -- first with some flour, then with eggs, and then with bread crumbs.

I'm also adding some water to this, but I'm adding some seltzer water because it makes that nice breading on the outside of the veal nice and light.

And just use a fork to whisk that together.

You can also use a whisk, of course.

This is the anglaise method.

First it's flour, and then it's eggs, and then it's bread crumbs.

But there's one more thing that you want to always remember.

You need to season all three with salt and also pepper.

So, just a little bit of salt.

And a little bit of pepper.

And then you just want to make sure that's mixed well.

And then, these are dry bread crumbs, but they're -- they're ones that you make yourself.

It's really best.

You know, the ones that come in the box, I don't -- they're just not as delicate and nice as these are.

So, this is just toasting your bread, and then you can just put it in the food processor.

And we also want to season the veal with just a little bit of salt and also some pepper.

All right.

Take your veal, and, first of all, it goes into the flour.

Both sides.

And then you can tap off any excess.

And then, next is the egg.

Egg and seltzer water.

Make sure it's completely coated and then hold it up and make sure that the excess is dripping off and you don't have any of the excess.

And then, next, in the bread crumbs.

Yum.

That's going to be great.

Okay.

Now we can set that aside.

♪ My little twist on the Wiener schnitzel is about the salad, too.

Because what I'm doing is a green goddess but with a twist because I'm using dill, and, usually, it's tarragon.

So, I'm starting by making the dressing for it.

And you want to use a food processor for this.

This is really the easiest.

I'm going to use anchovies.

I'm only going to use one.

Don't worry.

I'm throwing the anchovy in.

Also, a little bit of dill.

Remember?

I said a twist.

So, a little bit of dill.

And then, I'm also adding a little bit of parsley.

Remember, green goddess -- it's got to be green.

And some chives.

And now I'm adding a little bit of vinegar.

But this isn't just any vinegar.

I am using Gruner Veltliner vinegar that's made here in Austria.

And Gruner Veltliner is a wine that I love, but it's also -- it makes really nice vinegar.

It's just great.

Now, you can use any white-wine vinegar.

That would be fine.

And let's see.

That's it -- for now.

Oh!

And a little bit of salt.

[ Motor whirring ] Now I'm adding a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.

Just to balance that vinegar, along with a little bit of sour cream and yogurt.

Now, usually, it's sour cream or crème fraiche, but I'm using yogurt just to lighten it up a little bit.

Remember, this is a twist.

[ Motor whirring ] It's always important to taste, so... Oh, that's really nice.

Mmm.

That's really -- the dill is really prominent, and I love that.

It's going to really work with this dish.

♪ One of the best things about travel is sharing food and wine experiences with like-minded friends and family.

So when I was invited to go wine-tasting at 9:00 at night to sample some Gruner Veltliner, the answer was "Heck yeah!"

If you ever saw this little town by day, it's amazing how it transforms into something romantic, with just the flick of a switch.

And don't you just love the silence?

As you can see, a warm Austrian welcome awaits us at the end of our pilgrimage.

>> [ Speaking German ] >> The first one is the most typical one that we probably have in the entire region.

All around Austria, and here in the Valley, even more important because it's a Gruner Veltliner, so it's the most popular one that we have here in the entire region.

>> This is such a delicious wine.

And check out the color.

It's like gold.

And after a warm, sunny day and a brisk evening hike up the hill, I'm ready to taste Gruner Veltliner straight from the source.

As you can see, I'm having a great time with our new Austrian family.

>> [ Speaking German ] >> Prost!

>> Next, we all went down to the tasting room to buy some of their wine and liqueurs, and lucky for us, we were invited down to their 600-year-old stone wine cellar.

I feel like I'm traveling back through time as I step down into the depths of this historic cellar.

I really love seeing old wine cellars like this one that have such a rich history.

And to think, each bottle captures a moment in time.

Huh.

If only I had a corkscrew.

Going in.

Wow.

There's no mold here.

Riesling, 1965.

>> Oh!

>> Here.

What else?

I think this is Gruner Veltliner, 1983.

And this is a Riesling '67.

And a Riesling -- Oh, that's new -- 1964.

Oh, my God.

>> How about that top shelf?

Can you read that one?

>> No, it's a Riesling 1947.

That's very cool.

And then 1955.

Which one do you want?

I'll just grab one for us.

>> [ Speaking indistinctly ] >> Sure.

♪ What I'm going to do is make a little butter lettuce salad with these beautiful little Persian cucumbers and also some radishes.

So, I just want to take these, cut off the end, and then just...cut these into very thin slices.

I love these cucumbers because they're so delicate, the seeds are so small, they're not as watery, the skins are very thin.

Really beautiful cucumbers.

All right.

And I have some beautiful radishes.

And what I love about this is, they're about the same size, so they'll look really nice in the salad.

So, just paper-thin slices.

You could also use a mandoline if you wanted to do that to cut them very thin.

That would be fine, too.

All right.

I've made one dressing already, and now I'm going to make the second, because the outer leaves, you're going to see I'm making a little bowl, but I want to make a dressing first.

So, a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.

Really simple dressing.

And then, also, just a little bit more of that Gruner Veltliner, that nice vinegar.

Just a few drops.

Along with some salt.

And you can either use a fork or just whisk that together.

You want to whisk it enough until that salt melts.

And it's always important to taste this.

And I never taste this with a spoon.

I taste it with a leaf of lettuce.

So I've got this beautiful butter lettuce.

Mmm.

Little bit more oil.

Now I can set this aside.

♪ All right.

Now we're ready to cook the veal.

You're going to heat your pan to medium-high.

Add a little bit of butter.

Butter is great for browning.

And then, olive oil for flavor.

If it's all butter, too, sometimes it gets a little bit dark, so I like to use both.

Now, with traditional Wiener schnitzel, it's deep-fried.

It's in a batter, it's deep-fried.

This one is really just a breading.

It's a lot lighter.

Okay.

Now you can hear that little crackle and pop, so I'm going to just place the veal in the pan.

You can see it sizzling right around the outside.

That's what I'm looking for.

And I want to cook that for about four minutes on one side.

And in the meantime, I'm going to make the salad.

So, I have this beautiful lettuce, and I'm taking the outside leaves.

Just like this, just those nice leaves.

This has all been washed.

You want to use the whole leaves, which is why I'm using three heads.

But we'll use the inside, too.

Now I'm going to toss these outside leaves with that dressing that I made.

This was just the oil and vinegar and salt.

And I'm using a smaller bowl because I'm going to form a little salad bowl.

And with the inside, I take a knife, and I cut this lettuce into ribbons.

And in the same bowl... along with just some salad greens -- these are nice.

It's called mesclun.

It's just a mix of greens.

You could also use some parsley.

I just want to have a little bit of color.

And then, we're adding some radishes.

Remember those radishes I cut?

Radishes and, also, we're adding the cucumbers.

All right.

The veal.

Looking for the first side to be nice and golden brown.

And sizzling.

Check this out -- it looks so good.

Beautiful.

Mmm.

Now we want to cook it on the second side for about the same amount of time.

And then, in the meantime, I'll take this salad, and I'll toss it with that green goddess dressing.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ This is done.

It smells so good, and it looks beautiful.

Nice and golden brown -- just what I'm looking for.

And remember this little salad bowl I made?

I'm going to put that right on top.

I know that seems really different.

And now a little bit of the salad can go right on the top.

I'm going to use my hands.

It'll be so much easier.

♪ Now that is definitely a modern version of Wiener schnitzel.

But I love it, because what I love -- I love protein and salad together, and with a vinaigrette like this, it'll taste so good with the veal.

Always clean off the edge of your plate.

Okay.

That's Wiener schnitzel with a twist, made on a river ship.

Da-dum!

>> You can visit my website to find and print selected recipes, get information about each episode, learn more about the show, see behind-the-scenes photos, provide e-mail feedback, and more.

It's all at joanneweir.com/plates-places.

>> "Joanne Weir's Plates & Places" is brought to you by... >> With AmaWaterways, guests can climb... pedal... and journey beyond the beaten path while cruising on storied rivers across Europe.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

>> Our winemaking is the result of teamwork and patience.

Working together, we dedicate our best efforts with every vine, grape, and bottle.

Washington Vintners.

>> Since 1899, my family has shared our passion for everything that goes into our Mutti 100% Italian tomatoes.

Only tomatoes, only Mutti.

>> For baking, cooking, and snacks, California Figs from Valley Fig Growers.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪