A walk along the River Brent and Thames, passing through Brentford. Route This is the approximate route for the walk. You can see that it mostly follows the River Brent and Thames and finishes up in Hammersmith station. Sites The walk started in Hanwell, which is west of Ealing and south of Wembley. At the time of the walk, the Elizabeth line had just opened so it was also my first time on the new service.

An experiment with an AWS service to host a Django app. In general, these are the key things that I wanted to achieve in order to say that a web app has been ‘deployed’: Support the use of a custom domain name. Support the use of HTTPS via SSL certificate. Auto redirect to HTTPS when there is any incoming traffic. Support the upload of images and ‘articles’ in django admin.

The trick to making a burrito that doesn’t fall apart or tear when rolling up is using the right tortillas. This recipe uses large, thin flour tortillas that are warmed up and then seared closed and wrapped in foil. The filling is a chicken, chorizo and black bean mixture. Ingredients Chicken marinade: 4 chicken breasts or thighs 2 dried ancho chillis, deseeded 1 dried guajillo chilli, deseeded

A very comforting classic with some americanised additions. Ingredients Ragu Bolognese: 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 4 tablespoons butter 500 - 750g packet of minced beef 1 large packet of sausages, skinned (about 8 sausages) 1 chopped large onion 2 large carrots, peeled and diced 3 large ribs celery, diced 4 cloves garlic, finely minced

This recipes uses a homemade chilli paste made from whole dried chillies and whole pieces of beef from a cut such as shoulder or brisket. The majority of the cooking is done in a cast iron dutch oven and the 3 hour stint can be done on the hob or in a low-heated oven. Ingredients Dried chillis and spices: 2 ancho chillis 1 sweet pointed red pepper

This is my first experiment with enriched dough, and the result is a bread that is chewy and soft without the crusty exterior found with focaccia and typical baguettes. These are perfect for sandwiches and are best on the day of baking.  Ingredients Makes 4 rolls: 400g bread flour 260ml semi-skimmed milk (65% hydration) 8g diastatic malt powder 20g olive oil

Searing the meat on the hob and finishing in the the same pan in the oven creates a crispy and browned outside, whithout drying out the chicken. Make sure to create the sauce in the same pan as the chicken is cooked in to introduce more browned flavour.  Ingredients Cooking the chicken: 1 large breast, thigh or leg per person (skin-on) Fresh sprigs of thyme

Bagels use a much lower hydration dough than other lean dough recipes, and are also boiled before being baked. The result is a cripsy and blistered exterior with a bouncy interior. Eat within an hour of baking for the best results. Ingredients Creates 8 bagels: 500g bread flour 300g water (60% hydration) 20g honey 10g salt 8g instant yeast

A pizza with a slightly thicker crust that is cooked in an oven dish instead of pizza stone. Applying the cheese up to the very edge of the dough (in contact with the oven dish) causes the outer crust to fry in the rendered cheese fat and intensely crisp up.  Ingredients For a 1120cm2 metal oven dish: 500g bread flour 375ml warm water (~75% hydration)

Ideally, this would be smoked on a outdoor cooker, but a dutch oven allows a very tender replica to be made in the kitchen. Set aside at least 5 hours for this low and slow recipe.  Ingredients Cooked ingredients: 1 large pork shoulder/butt 1 diced onion Dry rub: 5 tbsp brown sugar 5 tbsp white sugar 5 tbsp paprika