An appetizer is meant to stimulate the appetite and not to stop it. While guests arrive, you offer them something to drink and you program how to proceed with the dinner ( start the oven is often my first job). Knowing that people need some time to feel at home, it would be rather rude to start immediately with the food( as if you would like them to leave as soon as they finished the meal).
Thus an appetizer is like a welcome bite.
Chermoula is a North African mixture, comparable with the Italian gremolata.
Chop 1 chili and 2 garlic cloves in tiny pieces. Roast 1 table spoon of cumin seeds and grind. Mix with the zeste of lemon ( originally from a pickled lemon). Add pepper and salt. Add 3 tablespoons of chopped fresh coriander. Add 100 ml of olive oil.
Marinate 300 grams of cleaned scampi in the chermoula for at least 1 hour.
Brush some olive oil on filo pastry. Use 1/2 of a sheet per scampi. Wrap each scampi in filo.
Another flavor?
Mix pumpkin puree ( prepared in the oven) with garlic, fresh coriander, nigella seeds, pepper and salt. Add olive oil to obtain a smooth consistency. Wrap 1 teaspoon of the mixture and 2 pistachios in 1/2 of a sheet of filo pastry.
Bake the appetizers on baking paper in the oven at 200° for approx 15-20mins. Turn halfway. In the meanwhile everybody is sitting down and starting to feel comfortable.
Doc V's Healthy Kitchen 