Vivek Singh spurned family expectations to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an engineer, surprising them instead by announcing he wanted to become a chef.
After graduating from catering college, Vivek joined the Oberoi Hotel Group as a specialist in Indian cuisine. He first worked at their flight kitchens in Mumbai where 2,000 meals were produced everyday for various airlines. He then moved on to the Grand Hotel in Calcutta where he was fast-tracked to become the Indian chef of Oberoi’s flagship Rajvilas in Jaipur. Rajvilas was voted as one of the most luxurious hotels in the world by Tatler in 2001.
From an early age, Vivek had been reading Escoffier and later devoured books by Marco Pierre White and Charlie Trotter. When Iqbal Wahhab, the co-founder of The Cinnamon Club, talked to him about how he saw Indian flavours and western culinary styles being married, Vivek was already on the same page.
Vivek authored The Cinnamon Club cookbook to wide acclaim in 2003 and The Cinnamon Club Seafood Cookbook in 2006. 2008 saw the launch of Vivek’s third cookbook, Curry: Classic and Contemporary, coinciding with the opening of his second restaurant, Cinnamon Kitchen. Located in the City’s redeveloped Devonshire Square,Cinnamon Kitchen and its bar, Anise, is host to London’s only tandoor bar and grill.
Since first opening its doors in 2001 at the old Westminster Library, The Cinnamon Club has been redefining the expectations of Indian cooking. Vivek liberated Indian food from its straitjacket of radition and crafted a brilliant marriage between Indian spicing and western culinary styles.
Recipe – Lamb and Sweetcorn CurryYou will need
- 750g boneless lamb shoulder meat, trimmed and cut into 2.5cm dice
- 6 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil
- 12 cloves
- 4 black cardamom pods
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 6 green chillies, slit lengthways
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 tablespoon Garlic Paste (page 18)
- 200g sweetcorn kernels, either frozen or canned is fine
- 250g plain yoghurt
- 125ml lamb stock or water, plus extra, if necessary
- 6cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
- 50g fresh coriander leaves and stalks, chopped
- Juice of 1 lemon
Method
To start making the curry heat the ghee to smoking point in a heavybased pan and add the cloves, cardamom pods and bay leaves. When they crackle, add the onions and cook on a medium heat until golden. Add the green chillies, salt, ground coriander, cumin and turmeric and stir for 1 minute. Stir in the garlic paste and continue cooking for 1–2 minutes. Now add the lamb and cook, moving it around on a high heat, for 4–5 minutes, until lightly browned all over. Stir in threequarters of the sweetcorn kernels and gradually add the yoghurt, stirring well after each spoonful. If you add it too quickly, it will split and make the curry grainy.
Once yoghurt is incorporated, continue stirring and allow the mixture to come to the boil. Add the lamb stock, reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sweetcorn is creamy and soft and the sauce has thickened. Add the ginger, fresh coriander and the remaining sweetcorn kernels, pour in a little more lamb stock or water, if required, and continue simmering over a low heat for 10 minutes. Check the seasoning and finish by squeezing in the lemon juice. Serve the curry hot with rice or with chickpea breads.
For more recipes from Villeroy & Boch click here