Easter Retreat with Jason Chan

Spring is not quite in the air!

Time flies when your having fun! We have been very busy spring cleaning, even though we are experiencing the coldest spring since 1964. The renowned spiritual teacher Jason Chan brought a group of fellow Thai Chi students for an Easter retreat. What lovely people they were too, so thoughtful and caring, must be Jason's amazing calming influence over them. We are looking forward to having them all back once again in the future & we wish them continued peace & serenity in their lives.

The group spent Easter Sunday at the Buddhist centre at plum village, the great spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh founded three villages for Vietnamese orphans in the late 60's & it has become a pilgrimage space for many visitors to our area, we are approximately a 10 minute drive, well worth a visit. 

Now it's time for me to mindfully wash & clean the guest house, re energizing it for our next group. When I am busy with the more mundane day to day jobs, I love cooking up something really quick & easy, this pasta dish is my very favourite it takes 15 minutes from start to eating, I thought I would share it with you, enjoy! 

Chilli prawns in garlic oil.

RECIPE - bring a large pan of water to the boil, then in a large sauté or frying pan add 200ml olive oil, 75g butter, gently warm up, add two large cloves of diced garlic, 1 large red chopped chilli I like it hot so I keep the seeds in, adjust to your taste. Keeping the heat low, after 2 minutes add 24 uncooked prawns, continue to cook for 5-6 minutes till the prawns have turned pink, indicating they are cooked. Once the pan is boiling add a packet of fresh pasta, return to a boil, cook for 3 minutes, If you use dried pasta this will take 7-8 minutes depending on shape & size, drain the pasta, add to the pan of prawns garlic chilli, I use a large wooden fork to gently stir the flavoured oils & butter into the pasta, the pasta will soak up some of these delicious juices readily. Then divide between two bowls sprinkle over some chopped coriander & serve immediately.