Cooking Course at Castle Weitenburg

How exciting! My first official cooking class and at a castle in Germany.

Not bad!  I was so excited.

We were greeted in the castle with a glass of champagne or orange juice, where

the charming Baron von Rassler in the jacket and tie, made us feel very welcome.

At the far right is our chef Markus Ginster.

This is one of my classmates Manfred getting stuck into our appetizer of the day.

The smoked salmon was laid out in a silicone form.

It was filled with the most delicate of salmon mousse and then chilled. I guess the best way to describe the mousse was that it had the hint of salmon but mostly tasted of lemon, pepper and cream. UMMM.

Our finished product.  It was amazing!

Chef Markus encouraged us to have good look around  in the

restaurant kitchen.

Here we see the pastry chef.

He is making a filling for some yummy concoction they would serve that evening in the

restaurant.

Next, it was time to watch how a gravy is made in their kitchen.

These are all the cuts of lamb that cannot be used for a proper meal.

They are sauteed in this deep pan.

Now some broth and carrots are added for flavor.

It's cooked for hours.

Now more broth is added along with some red wine and herbs.  It's simmered another hour or so,  producing the most gorgeous gravy.

 

We learned to make gnocchi

 and cut a rack of lamb correctly.

Our lamb was wrapped in bacon and a ratatouille mousse.  It was served over fresh spinach and our home-made parmesan gnocchi.

It was divine!

Our dessert was a delicate ice cream with kiwi and and a completely unbelievable tasting passion fruit and saffron sauce.

We all agreed it was a wonderful course and so much fun.

Chef Ginster runs these courses often and I highly recommend them.

If you aren't interested in cooking but EATING

do try out this great restaurant.

http://www.schloss-weitenburg.de/

Mac....can I go to Italy with cousin Terry  for my next cooking course?

Between the both of us we could cause some real trouble.