Week 1 Term 4 – 10 August 2026

Double meal prep – chicken saag and French roasted lamb shoulder

This class involves you preparing 2 meals to be finished on the oven or stovetop or reheated in the oven at home.  Please bring:

• 2 x 650ml container (4 x 650ml container if making 4 serves/meal) for the rice and parboiled potatoes
• 1 x 4 litre capacity container with a lid for the cooked curry (you will reheat this on the stove top or in the oven at home).
• 1 x deep baking tray with lid – small (4 litre capacity) if you are cooking 2 serves per meal, or medium (6 to 8 litre capacity) if you are cooking 4 serves per meal.

Otherwise, you can buy ‘containers’ packs on our website for a couple of dollars each. 

Chicken saag  (v – paneer)

Note:  This is excellent with some Greek yoghurt with a bit of mint, sugar, salt and lime juice, and some chopped tomato, red onion and cucumber.  You can also make it with lamb shoulder – just double the cook time.

Equipment

• Cooktop
• Frying pan
• Cutting board with paper towel
• Chef’s knife
• Foil to cover frypan

Ingredients

• 350g chicken thigh fillets (v – 300g paneer)
• 250g frozen pureed spinach, defrosted
• 1 tbsp ghee or butter
• ½ onion
• ½ tomato
• ½ green chilli
• 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• ¼ tsp cumin seeds
• Small bay leaf
• 1 green cardamom pod
• 1 clove
• Fat pinch chilli powder
• ¼ tsp amchur (dried mango powder, available at coles)
• ½ tsp garam masala
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cups of steamed basmati rice (chef to provide)

Method

1. Get all ingredients and equipment.
2. Prepare vegetables:
   a. Peel and finely chop onion.
   b. Finely chop tomato
   c. Finely slice green chilli
3. Cut and cook chicken (v- paneer):
   a. Dice chicken (v- paneer) into bite sized pieces
   b. Sear in frypan over high heat. (v – remove paneer)
   c. Add a little water and simmer, covered for about 15 minutes until almost cooked.
4. Make base for curry sauce
   a. Heat ghee/butter in frypan.
   b. Fry cumin seeds, cardamom, cloves and bay leaves until the cumin spits a little.
   c. Add onions and fry until golden.
   d. Add ginger/garlic mix and green chilli.
   e. Add powdered spices (garam masala, amchur, red chilli powder) and ¼ tsp salt.
   f. Add tomatoes and spinach.
5. Finish curry sauce.
   a. Add chicken (v- paneer) to spinach and mix.
   b. Add hot water if needed to loosen sauce – it should not cling to the chicken (v- paneer).
   c. Bring to a simmer and cook for 6 to 10 minutes.
6. Package curry and rice separately to take home.
7. Clean down, including sweeping floor, wiping and sanitising cooktop and benches, washing and drying up, and cleaning and sanitising knives.
8. At home, reheat in oven or on stovetop until warmed through.
9. Serve with rice.

French roasted lamb shoulder (v – mushroom, lentils and pumpkin)

Equipment

• Cooktop
• Saucepan
• Cutting board w paper towel
• Chef’s knife
• Paring knife

• Foil

Ingredients

• 8 cloves garlic
• 1 brown onion
• 2 large potatoes
• 350g piece of lamb shoulder (v – half a tin of lentils, half a butternut pumpkin, 4 swiss brown mushrooms)
• 1 tsp herbs de Provence
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 small sprigs rosemary
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 tbsp EVOO
• 2 tbsp neutral vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp flaked salt

• Black pepper

Method

1. Get ingredients and equipment.
2. Prepare vegetables
   a. Cut onion into wedges
   b. Slice 4 cloves of garlic thinly.
   c. Strip rosemary leaves.
   d. Cut potatoes into bite sized chunks.
   e. (v – drain lentils, peel pumpkin and leave in big pieces, cut or tear mushrooms in half).
3. Parboil potatoes
   a. Put in a saucepan with cold water, add salt.
   b. Bring to boil.
   c. Cook for about 5 minutes or until a knife goes into the potatoes with a little resistance.
   d. Drain and allow to dry in the saucepan.
   e. When dry, toss in vegetable oil and put into takehome container.
4. Prepare roasting tray
   a. Put 4 whole garlic cloves and all the onion into the bottom of the roasting pan.
   b. Put lamb (v – lentils, pumpkin pieces and mushroom) on top of garlic and onions.
   c. Poke the paring knife into the top side of the lamb in about 10 spots and push a bit of rosemary and a slice or two of garlic into each incision.
   d. Rub lamb (v – pumpkin) with combined herbs de Provence, salt, pepper and half the EVOO.
   e. Put water, wine and rosemary sprigs in the base of the pan.
   f. Drizzle remaining EVOO over the top.
   g. Cover with a double layer of foil.
5. Clean down, including sweeping floor, wiping and sanitising cooktop and benches, washing and drying up, and cleaning and sanitising knives.
6. At home, roast at 160C for about 2.5 hours covered until the meat pulls apart with a fork. Remove foil, turn up heat to 200, add potatoes to tray and roast for another 35 minutes or until the potatoes are browned. (v – roast uncovered for about 50 minutes until pumpkin is soft.  Turn up heat to 200, add potatoes to tray and roast for another 35 minutes or until the potatoes are browned.)  
7. Rest meat, covered, for 10 minutes before serving.