This is one of my favourite curries. I'd quite forgotten about it, until I cooked it again, for the first time in ages, the other night. Which is why I have turmeric on my trousers. It came originally from the Moosewood Cookbook. The recipe, that is. Not the turmeric.

Moosewood Potato, Pea and Paneer Curry

Take some potatoes. Cut up small - somewhere between dice and chunks.
Also an onion, chunked, lots of garlic, crushed, a green chilli, thinly sliced. First de-seed if you cannae handle the endorphin rush.

Heat some oil in a frying pan. Add a generous pinch of asafoetida (optional. available from Asian stores as "hing." Smells like old garlic down a kitchen plughole). Also, some salt. After a wee stir, chuck in a generous portion of cumin seeds and black mustard seeds. When these start to pop, add some turmeric. Stir. Add the onions, garlic, chilli. Fry gently a little while. Then add the potatoes. Toss until covered in yellow oil. (Mike: "Don't eat that yellow oil!"). Add water so the potatoes are just about covered. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked. Then, if necessary, turn up the heat until most of the water has boiled off.

Meanwhile, have some peas defrosted. Quite a lot of peas. Either microwave them, or pour boiling water over them. Add to the curry. Heat through, but do not cook as such. Next add a squirt of lemon juice and a good sized tub of cottage cheese. Also, a big knob. Of butter. (Optional but optimal). Stir. Serve.

******* TODAY'S SOCIAL COMMENT: LESS THAN ZERO. *****************

Over the last few days I have been astounded by the casuistry with which Enoch Powell was judged not to be a racist, but rather a nationalist. Compare these two statements:
"People of other races are inferior. We don't want them around here."
"People of other races are not necessarily inferior and are fine in their own countries. But we don't want them around here."
Powell was, admittedly, an intelligent man. Therefore we have to accept that a) he knew there is no practical difference between the above statements, b) he knew precisely what effect his "Rivers of Blood" speech would have. Don't see no rivers around my place, Enoch. One musn't speak ill of the dead, and part of me wishes no harm to anyone. But one can't help but feel that if there were a just god, towards the end Enoch might have felt what it's like for Imran Khan, a former medical student, who is slowly re-gaining some limited powers of movement - i.e. he can move his fingers and eyes. He was in a coma for three years after being set upon by unidentified skinheads in Bethnal Green.

Oh, and presumably by Powell's logic, If I were to say "Women are OK in the kitchen. But we don't want them doing a man's job" then I wouldn't be a sexist.