Display post by category

Just wondering if anyone could tell me how to make the following code display posts of only the current catergory. At the moment it displays post from all catergories.

<?php $recent = new WP_Query("cat=$current_category&showposts=2"); while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post();?>
<?php if( get_post_meta($post->ID, "hpbottom", true) ): ?>
" rel="bookmark"><img style="float:left;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;" src="<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "hpbottom", true); ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
<?php else: ?>
" rel="bookmark"><img style="float:left;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;" src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/images/thumbnail.png" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
<?php endif; ?>
<b>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></b>
<?php the_content_limit(350, "[Read more of this review]"); ?>

<div style="border-bottom:1px dotted #2255AA; margin-bottom:10px; padding:0px 0px 10px 0px; clear:both;"></div>

<?php endwhile; ?>