Is this a good first course? Does it work?

[shook7]

I am having a dinner with my families friends and i am planning the menu and cooking, too. for the first course, i wanted to start off on a lighter note and progress through the menu. i am planning on not even having a protein for my first course....here is what i'm thinking.

lemon braised baby artichokes, grilled portobello mushrooms, kalamata olives, balsamic vinegar reduction.

i hope you chefs out there can help me out and fix any of it. i think it is a pretty decent idea, but heck, if u dont like it, tell me, please! also tell me if there is anything i should add/subtract from it. thanks

[Suzanne]

Sounds very tasty to me. The only question is presentation: how will you make it look on the plate? The first way that comes to my mind is as a flower: artichoke in the middle of the plate, slices of mushroom around as "petals," with olives by the artichoke and the vinegar drizzled around. Needs a bright color, though -- maybe some curls of lemon zest, or herb leaves.

Others will probably have different platings.

[Scarecrobot]

Are you using sugar in you balsamic reduce? Depending on your amounts lemon braise,olives & vinegar to artichoke & mushroom, the only thing I would say is beware of too much sour.Maybe cut it with a drizzle of good oil or crisp like lettuce or other green. Also depends on what course behind it is could work as it is.Wine with it?

[kuan]

I would not order this if I saw it on the menu. It sounds delicious, but I think you should separate it out on the plate and make it like two courses. The lemon braised artichokes and the portabellas are polar opposites. One is fresh and light, the other is beefy and meaty. The portabellas will discolor your plate. The balsamic should be fine with the portabellas, but with the light lemony chokes?

So anyway, I'd serve the olives with wine before dinner. Then I'd do the artickhokes with a lighter garnish, maybe chokes with a white sauce of some kind. Then move on to the portabellas...

[shook7]

Originally Posted by kuan

I would not order this if I saw it on the menu. It sounds delicious, but I think you should separate it out on the plate and make it like two courses. The lemon braised artichokes and the portabellas are polar opposites. One is fresh and light, the other is beefy and meaty. The portabellas will discolor your plate. The balsamic should be fine with the portabellas, but with the light lemony chokes?

So anyway, I'd serve the olives with wine before dinner. Then I'd do the artickhokes with a lighter garnish, maybe chokes with a white sauce of some kind. Then move on to the portabellas...

thats the kind of answer im looking for! i was also thinking of making a caper-tomato white wine butter sauce and putting that in the bottom of the bowl. then add the braised atrichokes, and have something else, i dont know. any suggestions? thanks for your help. tell me what u think.