Jamie Oliver

1. Preheat your oven to 200˚C/400˚F/gas 6. Put your porcini mushrooms into a dish, cover with 565ml/1 pint of boiling water and allow to soak until soft. Heat a large roasting tray on the hob. Slice the bacon across into strips – called ‘lardons’. Fry in 4 tablespoons of olive oil until crisp and golden. Tie your herbs together with some string and add to the bacon in the pan with your onions, garlic, carrot, celery and bay leaves. Drain the porcini, reserving the soaking liquid, add them to the pan and fry nice and slowly for about 5 minutes. Add the red wine and simmer until the liquid has reduced by half.
2. Add the tomatoes to the pan, breaking them up with a spoon, then add your strained porcini soaking liquor and the beans. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Lightly season then lay your sausages on top – all higgledy piggledy, so they can get nice and brown as they cook. Break up your bread into coarse, chunky breadcrumbs, toss with the thyme, a little salt and olive oil and sprinkle around the sausages. Place in the oven for around 40 minutes until the sausages and breadcrumbs are golden and crisp. Remove the bunch of herbs and serve with something like mashed potato or polenta.
3. Try this: Any combination of beans and lentils works well in this cassoulet, so feel free to use what you fancy.
4. And this: Sometimes if I want to make this a bit more healthy and get some greens involved I will stir in a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach right at the end when serving up. The heat from the dish will make the spinach wilt.

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
2. Parboil your carrots in boiling, salted water for 10 minutes, until they are very nearly cooked, then drain and put them into a roasting tray. You should flavour them while they’re steaming hot, so while the carrots are cooking get a pestle and mortar and smash up the cumin seeds, chillies, salt and pepper. Add the garlic and thyme leaves and smash up again until you have a kind of paste. The idea here is to build up the flavours. Add enough extra virgin olive oil to generously cover the paste, and a good swig of vinegar. This will be like a marinade, a rub and a dressing all in one! Stir together, then pour over the carrots in the tray, coating them well. Add the orange and lemon halves, cut-side down. These will roast along with the carrots, and their juice can be used as the basis of the dressing. Place in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden.
3. While the carrots are roasting, halve and peel your avocados, discarding the stones, then cut them into wedges lengthways and place in a big bowl. Remove the carrots from the oven and add them to the avocados. Carefully, using some tongs, squeeze the roasted orange and lemon juice into a bowl and add the same amount of extra virgin olive oil and a little swig of red wine vinegar. Season, and pour this dressing over the carrots and avocados. Mix together, have a taste and correct the seasoning. Call your gang round the table while you toast or griddle your ciabatta slices.
4. Tear the toasted bread into little pieces and add to the dressed carrot and avocado. Mix together, toss in the salad leaves and cress and transfer to a big platter or divide between individual plates. Spoon over a nice dollop of yoghurt, sprinkle over your toasted seeds and drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
Season the oxtail with sea salt and a generous pinch of black pepper, then brown all over in a casserole pan on a medium heat for 10 minutes, turning occasionally while you peel and slice the onions.
Remove the oxtail to a plate, add 1 tablespoon of oil and the onions to the pan, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
Return the oxtail to the pan, stir in the flour to coat, then add 4 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce and the stock. Bring to the boil, then cover and place in the oven for 3 hours to 3 hours 30 minutes, or until the meat is super tender.
Strain the gravy into a separate pan and put aside, then tip the meat and onions back into the pan.
Once cool enough to handle, carefully pick through the meat, discarding the bones and any wobbly bits, then gently mix back with the onions and a splash each of gravy and Worcestershire sauce, being careful not to break up the meat too much. Pick, roughly chop and stir through the parsley leaves (reserving the stalks).
For the burger sauce, finely chop the gherkins, tomato, little gem and reserved parsley stalks, then transfer to a bowl, stir in the yoghurt and season to perfection.
Shape the minced meat into four equal-sized patties, being quite rough so they’re not too compact, then season the outsides with salt and pepper.
I like to cook two burgers at a time to achieve perfection, so get two pans on the go – a large non-stick pan on a high heat for the burgers and another on a medium heat for the buns.
Place two patties in the large pan, pressing them down slightly with a fish slice, then cook for 8 minutes in total, turning every minute and brushing with a little English mustard after the first turn. Put the gravy and oxtail pans on a low heat to warm through.
When the burgers are almost cooked, halve and toast two burger buns in the second frying pan. Finely slice the cheese and place on top of each burger, add a splash of water to the pan, then cover with a lid or a metal bowl and cook for a further 30 seconds, or until the cheese has melted.
To assemble the burgers, spoon a quarter of the burger sauce on to each toasted bun base, sit a burger on top, spoon over 1 tablespoon of the pulled oxtail (save the rest for another day) and place the bun lid on top. Serve the gravy in a bowl on the side for dunking. Repeat with the remaining two burgers.

1. Most people think of strawberries as something they'd only eat for dessert, but they work so well in salads. Especially when paired with halloumi cheese, which I just love. It's a Cypriot cheese made from goat's or sheep's milk and you can get it from all good supermarkets. It's like a chewy feta but one you can cook with. When fried or broiled it goes all crispy on the outside and soft and slightly chewy on the inside. A brilliant thing to eat.
2. In a bowl, drizzle the sliced strawberries with a good splash of balsamic vinegar, the lemon juice and some extra-virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. This will draw out and flavor the lovely strawberry juices.
3. Preheat a large nonstick frying pan to medium hot and add a splash of olive oil. Press a basil leaf onto each slice of halloumi. Place the slices, leaf side down, in the frying pan and fry for a minute. Turn over carefully and fry for another minute until the halloumi is light golden and crisp.
4. Get yourself 4 plates and place a couple of pieces of the crispy halloumi on each. Put the mint, the rest of the basil leaves and the salad leaves into the bowl with the strawberries and toss together. Pile some of the strawberry mixture in the middle of each plate and drape the speck over the top. Finish with more salad leaves. To serve, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil.

1. Place all the vegetables in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan with a big splash of olive oil and the ginger, garlic, chili, basil stalks, coriander seeds and cloves. Season with the pepper and a good pinch of salt.
2. Cook gently over a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes until softened, stirring every so often. Add all the tomatoes and 1 1/2 cups of cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the sauce reduces by half.
3. Add the basil leaves, then whiz the sauce in a food processor or with a hand blender and push it through a sieve twice, to make it smooth and shiny. Put the sauce into a clean pan and add the vinegar and the sugar. Place the sauce on the heat and simmer until it reduces and thickens to the consistency of tomato ketchup. At this point, correct the seasoning to taste.
4. Spoon the ketchup through a sterilized funnel into sterilized bottles, then seal tightly and place in a cool dark place or the refrigerator until needed - it should keep for 6 months.