Bite magazine: Pre-Christmas drinks

Rosemary cured wagyu with olive grissini and anchovy mayonnaise. Photo / Bite Magazine

Find all your favourite bits from today's Bite magazine online. Follow the hyperlinks in Jo Elwin's editor's letter and lose yourself in bite.co.nz.

It's that "we must catch up before Christmas" time of year, where we frantically try and cram in a whole year's worth of entertaining in to the weeks leading up to Christmas Day. I'll be whipping up my usual

salmon dip

. But to help us with some more impressive finger food ideas we have gone straight to one of the best - Des Harris from Clooney restaurant in Auckland. Don't overlook his recipes for

green tomatoes on sourdough

,

salmon tartar with pumpkin seed emulsion and lemonade

, and

rosemary cured wagu with grissini

as being too tricky. There are some methods in the recipes you may have never done before but as Des says they are open to interpretation - you can adapt them to suit. You could even take certain components from them and drop some of the others. The salmon tartar with pumpkin seed emulsion and lemonade segments would be just as impressive without the lemonade jelly if you don't want to take it that far. Give them a go and reap the rewards of his culinary magic.

Parmesan crisps. Photo / Bite magazine

Warren Elwin is using cheese as his entertainer in 4 bites this week. The savoury hit of his

parmesan crisps

,

cheese puffs

and

goat's cheese dip

are just what you need with a glass of wine and, when it's time to pass around something sweet (a great way to politely say the party's over people) try some

fingers of cheesecake

.

Photo / Bite magazine

Celia Hay has the third in our wine series. This week she's helping us with our

chardonnay selection

and what to serve with it.

Asparagus bruschetta. Photo / Bite magazine

And, because there's still weeknight meals to put on the table we've got a Monday night asparagus bruschetta and a zingy salad with picked tofu from Aaron Brunet.

Follow me on twitter @joelwin2 join us on facebook.com/biteNZ And be in to win a trip to New York by entering a recipe in to the reader recipe section on bite.co.nz.