Curcumin, the supplement you'd never heard of until about six months ago.

It's one of the health fads of the moment. I keep hearing it everywhere. Curcumin. For relief of inflammation. No-one knows if it works or not, of course, just like no-one knows if fish oil works. You spend your money on hope, like betting with Sportsbet. "If your team loses by less than ten points after leading at half time - CASHBACK!!!!!" Except there's no cash back with supplements and they're a lot dearer than a twenty-buck bet.

Turmeric - the source of curcumin - is a lot cheaper and tastier, as in the following curry I made last night:

Potato, spinch and eggplant curry - with tumeric.

Dice four large potatoes and fry them in oil in a deep frypan in batches until done. Remove.

Cube four eggplants and fry these in the same pan, adding more oil if necessary. Remove.

Chop two large onions and fry until golden, adding more oil if necessary.

Into the frying onions, stir a cubic inch (guess) of finely chopped ginger (a cousin of turmeric), a heaped teaspoon of crushed cumin seeds and a heaped teaspoon of turmeric. Fry for a minute.

Now add four fresh chopped green chillies, two cans of diced tomatoes and their juice and a teaspoon of salt.

Return the fried potatoes and eggplant to the pan, along with a bunch of roughly chopped spinach and half a cup of water. Add two teaspoons of brown sugar and cook uncovered until simmer recedes. Serve over rice.