Run rabbit, run rabbit, quick, quick..... oops too late.

Picked up a wild rabbit for £5 in Alan Beveridge, the fishmonger on Byres Road. Jointed then soaked in water with a drop of vinegar for a few hours. This blanches the meat and gets rid of the 'rodenty' flavour.

Used the trimmings to make a stock which cooked while I fannied around making the rest of the dish.

It came with the liver and kidneys intact. Rabbit liver is one of the best and the kidneys, well, if another animal produces a tastier one I'm yet to eat it.

This is what I did:
Cut a piece of pancetta into cubes and fried it gently for 5 mins. Added two cloves of garlic and continued frying until the garlic turned golden. Strained it reserving the pancetta and garlic and keeping the fat.
Put a tablespoon of the fat back in the pan and browned the rabbit. Put the pancetta and garlic back in the pan, poured in a glass of white wine and reduced it to almost nothing. Strained the trimmings stock into the pan to just cover the rabbit. Brought everything to the boil, then simmered very gently with a lid on for about an hour. The simmering could have taken longer if the rabbit was older.
Once the rabbit was tender I poured the juices into another pan and boiled to reduce by a half. Then I added a a few tablespoons of cream and boiled for a few more minutes. Finally I added about a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, some fresh chopped parsley, a minced clove of garlic, salt and pepper. Popped it all to one side while I quickly fried the liver and kidneys in some of the reserved fat. About 2 minutes on each side, no more. Served with potatoes, cut into slices, parboiled, rubbed with olive oil then roasted in an oven @ 200 c for approx. 40 mins.

In my time I've done some serious poncing around with rabbit... marinades, stuffings, waterbaths, boning and wrapping... but I reckon this was the tastiest rabbit dish I've eaten. Next time, if I'm flush, I reckon a few morel mushrooms would really make it.

Drank this with it. The name was so nearly so right...

It came from Sainsbury's and at £5.49 it's a good price for white burgundy. It tastes pretty typical too. But it does have a rustic edge, a touch of rough, a hint of rodent perhaps? Archie the fox terrier was uncontrollably excited after his first bite of rabbit, so I took him out to calm down. Spotted this on the walk and thought it looked a bit like a fossilised dinosaur rodent.

Music & wine: Chew Lips 'Salt Air' & Muscadet

The motorway was dreadful, "Slow for 6 miles" read the sign. I decided to take an early exit, and, as the lights turned green at the top of the slip road, pressed down on the throttle. What followed was the loudest snapping sound ever. The car wouldn't budge. Fellow motorists honked horns, shouted, gesticulated and implied that my parents weren't married when I was conceived. Their initial anger transformed into amusement as I took the warning triangle from the boot and placed it in the road.

I've always wanted an excuse to use it, unfortunately this wasn't an excuse. After that I stood on a traffic island for an hour being ignored by police cars, waiting for the RAC, singing a tune I couldn't get out of my head and imagining what I'd be doing if the car hadn't broken down.

I decided the best bet to go with Chew Lips 'Salt Air' would be a Muscadet. Grown near the ocean and great with seafood. Also, over the past ten years, it has transformed from being one of the most unreliable names in French wine to being one of the most consistent.

To eat with it? After much deliberation I settled on Moules Frites. My thinking was to combine the quintessential elements of being 'seaside' on both sides of the Channel.

Well, the car's still gubbed, but tonight's the night. Moules frites, muscadet and Chew Lips. Can't wait, but whether it goes or not, I'm sure it'll be better than standing on a traffic island.

Smuggler's delight

Cornwall was once synonymous with rum coves and hidden passages. These days, thanks to global warming, there's little need to sneak it in through the back door. Niven and Sabeen were justly proud of this souvenir, so much better than a plastic pirate's patch.

It's light, aromatic, invigorating and very similar to a Loire sauvignon. Apparently it sells out every year and costs about £10. So is that too expensive?

Well, if it was from the Loire, yes, it's not quite Sancerre. But for one of the best wines in Cornwall? Clearly that's what you have to pay.

Niven and Sabeen are getting very close to producing something else they'll be proud of...

To help them celebrate, and given the scarcity of Cornwall's finest, I'm suggesting this little beauty. I love it.

Melony, limey, sherbety and totally refreshing, it's hard to stop drinking this wine. A cracker and best of all, yours from Oddbins for just £5.99! Total bargain.

Click here for the Camel Valley Vineyards

I have been to a very dark place...

There was an amazing night last week. It was filled with the incredible tension that comes from when it should be pouring but somehow never does. The threat, and the wind, keeps everyone indoors, those who venture out get the city to themselves. It's the best time to walk.

What goes up must come down. All buoyed up and back in the flat I'm heading for a crash. One I've adored since first meeting is about to let me down terribly...

Of course, it's all my fault. Convinced I know something I don't, and that macs can do no wrong, I dive in. Trying to fix a glitch with email I manage to delete everything on the hard drive and can't find anything on the back up. What follows is shock and I'm not prepared for it. A week spent coming to terms with my own stupidity and thick headedness.

Salvation came from a very nice man in work. He pressed the right buttons and found what was missing. Which was everything. I had no idea a computer could become this precious. It's wrong. To help pull me out of the abyss I cracked open my last bottle of Condrieu.

Years ago a famous wine writer said Condrieu was best drunk young from a jug in the regions cafes. He described it as a heady mix of mountain streams and wild flowers but said it didn't travel. Back then the appellation was dying out and the grape it's made from, Viognier, was almost extinct. How times change. This wine even spent time in oak. Gorgeous stuff, but beneath its now serious structure was a haunting reminder, a whisper of youthful exuberance, of what it was like before going inside that dark place.... the barrel that is.

Condrieu 2006

Les Vins De Vienne

Bought from Tesco two weeks ago. Reduced from £24 to £11.50 a bottle.

Tour de France

Sometimes only steak frites will do. Way back, it's what we got for enduring my father's determination to drive the length of France non stop. After 14 hours squashed among the camping gear, our reward was something with frites from a roadside van. I still love it.

Frites are tricky ones. My attempts to cook them never quite work and the smell lingers. So it's always M&S Frites now, my 'supermarket food product of the year'. 15 minutes in the oven et Bob est votre onlce. Picked up the wine at the same time for £5.49. A steal.

French green peppercorn sauce, not essential, but ideal. This stuff transformed limited camping stove fayre into restaurant like splendour... to a ten year old at least. Nowadays I never visit France without picking up 20 'Poivre Vert'. It always gets a comment at the till.

Another tip is to rehydrate the sauce with half water half wine. Other than that, who knows why it tastes so much better than the packets bought here? It just does.

Finally, the steak shouldn't be too posh. It never was in France. This was a great lump of popseye cut from the beast by Andrew Reid Butchers on Great Western Road.

Mmmm, I could almost hear my mother's voice... "Slow down or you'll get indigestion..."

M&S Piedmont Barbera

Juicy, slurpy, sour cherryness.

A very good wine for £5.49.

Funky Porcini

Some mornings are just right. It's hard to explain, almost mumbo jumbo, a feeling of warmth, sensing the unattainable will soon be attained.

'How come I was walking that way? Why did I stop when I did? What made me go in?'.

I envy people who know exactly what they want, I rarely do. A vague notion, perhaps, an idea of something, maybe, even my cravings are often unfocused. Often that is, but not always...

The early bird catches the worm, and if so inclined, the unblemished porcini too. Good job, saved me getting up.

Sauted the Italian way. Garlic and a handful of chopped parsley fried in oil first, porcini in next, more parsley at the end. Salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon. Served on toast. My hearts desire... for this morning at least.

MacCallums

71 Holdsworth Street,

Glasgow

G3 8ED

0141 204 4456

[Mainly fish but sometimes they do mushrooms too]

Of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

Green's an overrated colour. Those who live in the wettest places deceive themselves of it's beauty. The truth is, nature often looks best when it's dying.

Cottiers, once a church, was memorably described by a friend as 'full of loud c**ts with kitchen brochures sticking out their back pockets'. Not any more, recessions aren't all bad.

Outside, inhaling sweet hops, there's a sense that something dreadful just happened. The stunned calm borne of shock. That sinking-in feeling.

It's shattered when a visiting businessman stands and shouts into his phone... "Jeff? Ah THE Jeff, ha-ha-ha, what is he like!". As another leaf falls from the tree, I'm reminded that we all die alone.

Cottiers

93-95 Hyndland Street,

Glasgow

G11 5PU

Divine intervention

Ordinarily I'm with the Woodlands Road box ticker. But then, later that evening, something truly amazing appeared before me...

I felt elated, overcome with wonder, the senses enveloped by pure joy. Hallelujah, for my cup did overfloweth with fermented gorgeousness.

To sup of this, is to drink the very body of the earth that created it. Rolling Burgundian hills, golden harvests and a mellow sense of time lapping gently at your feet. I was led to it by a prophecy...

"Try this, it's very good", he said.

Fingal Rock

64 Monnow Street

Monmouth

NP25 3EN

01600 712 372

(Omnipresence via mail order)

Eating out in Lytham St Annes

There's a great series of promotional films from the late 1970s featuring Telly Savalas professing his love for some unlikely places... "So long Aberdeen and here's looking at you". Though it's suspiciously short of any footage of Kojak actually in the Granite City. I'm not sure Lytham St Annes would have been Telly's sort of town. Actually, it's two towns that roll into each other and they're more Des O'Conner's sort of towns.

You wouldn't be surprised to bump into 'Little and Large' in the local Booths supermarket or 'Keith Harris and Orvil' having a quickie in the pier toilets. It's a place that has everything old entertainers like: sea, fancy golf course, Blackpool next door and best of all, lots of people old enough to remember who you are.

If you should find yourself in Lytham and can remember that you haven't had your tea, you'd do well to head to Portofino. Our very kind friends, and Lytham locals, Colin and Sarah took us.

It's bustling and Italianesque with some Portugese leanings. Good competent cooking, generous 'northern' portions and some decent bottles on the list.

Picks for me were steamed clams 'Portugese': palourdes clams, with loads of garlic and olive oil. Delicious. Seafood linguine with a lovely shellfish flavour and rabbit in a sweetish sauce tasting of burnt sugar, in a nice way.

Drank a perfectly mature bottle of Italian Morellino with the mains.

Here's looking at you Lytham. But just in case you fancy somewhere else, might I be so bold as to suggest...

Click here for Portofino's website