The Princess Spy

Been clearing out old videos, having replaced some of the recordings with DVDs and admitting I'll never watch others (I have packrat tendencies, okay?) The documentaries though, I'm trying to watch before I get rid of them, although there's, er, rather a lot of them. But there's nothing on TV right now anyway.

Tonight was a TimeWatch Documentary, The Princess Spy.

Noor Inayat Khan was the daughter of an Indian Sufi mystic and an American journalist. She was born in Moscow in 1914, went to nursery school in London and grew up in Paris. She loved music, studied child psychology, wrote a children's book and helped raise her siblings after her father died.

When Germany invaded France, Noor and her family fled to England. Though a pacifist, Noor joined the WAAF and trained as a wireless operator. She was later recruited by the SOE to work in France. The usual life expectancy for an undercover wireless operator was six weeks. Noor was in Paris for over twelve weeks, becoming the last operator in Paris after the rest were captured, before she was betrayed to the Gestapo. She was held prisoner in various locations for almost a year. She was interrogated, tortured and chained - having made several escape attempts. She refused to cooperate with the enemy in any way.

On 13 September 1944, Noor was executed at Dachau concentration camp along with three other female agents. She was 30 years old.

It's a hell of a story and I'm glad I watched the documentary. The doco was rather uneven and the narrator and the nephew were a bit grating but it was a good intro to Noor's story. Being me, I immediately looked her up online and discovered several books I want to get.

* Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan - Shrabani Basu

* Flames in the Field: The Story of Four SOE Agents in Occupied France - Rita Kramer

* A Life In Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII - Sarah Helm (It was Vera Atkins who searched for the truth of what happened to Noor and the other missing agents after the war ended.)


 

Finding a perfect basic

One of our standard family dinners while I was growing up was Spaghetti Bolognese. But while it was nice bolognese, it was usually beef mince, jarred sauce and a splash of red wine. It did get boring. Since I started doing the cooking, I've been trying to avoid preprepared stuff as much as possible in my cooking so bolognese went off the menu until I could find a good recipe.

I have tried several recipes over the last few years and they were ... eh. Decent but no more exciting (and rather more work) than the jarred stuff.

The situation has changed.

Browsing foodgawker a few days ago, I spotted Bolognese Sauce with Cloves and Cinnamon. Hmm, says I, that looks interesting ... and I have that pork and veal mince in the freezer that I need to use ... and we have all that parsley ...

Well. It was good. Really, really good. Simple to cook, with a wonderfully rich flavour thanks to the spices. Served it over egg tagliatelle (that was what I had in the cupboard.) A fabulous cool-weather recipe.

The next time I make it (and there will be a next time!) I might add a grated zucchini to the sauce towards the end of cooking, just for some extra vegetable bulk that won't change the flavour too much. Apart from that? It was delicious and just as good the next day.