CURRIES AND BUGLES AND MICROWAVES : LOOKING FOWARD: JULIE SAHNI ON THE HIGH-TECH FUTURE OF INDIAN COOKING.

Julie Sahni takes one of the paper-thin lentil wafers called pappadum and instead of deep-frying it in the age-old Indian way, sticks it in a microwave.

It’s an eerie sight. Because microwaves move in irregular patterns, the pappadum twists and crinkles, cooked sections rising like mountains alternating with pale meadows of raw. If there’s a carousel in the oven to keep the food revolving (as there should be), the wafer cooks evenly but warps in a circular pattern, like a piece of paper roughly molded over a doughnut.

It’s done in about 25 seconds. It doesn’t look like your standard pappadum , which usually resembles a giant potato chip . It doesn’t taste like one either--the spices are astonishingly fresh and perfumed. It’s like a crisp explosion of black pepper in the mouth.

“And no oil,” Julie Sahni says, beaming triumphantly. “Not a drop.”

Wearing a brisk black dress and a string of pearls instead of a sari, the nation’s leading writer on Indian food is cooking from a copy of her new book, “Microwave Moghul: Cooking Indian Food the Modern Way” (Morrow, $27.95), which she has prudently kitchen-proofed in plastic wrap. Can this really be Julie Sahni, the passionately intense teacher of traditional Indian cooking?

She understands the question; she was dubious about the microwave at first. “It seemed so unsensuous and scientific,” she recalls. But then her sisters moved into houses in Texas and Oklahoma with built-in microwaves and started cooking Indian dishes in them. Sahni was fascinated by the results, and started experimenting on her own.

Fortunately, as she points out, Moghul cookery--the high-prestige cuisine of the 17th and 18th century royal courts--is more suitable to microwaving than many other schools of Indian cooking. It doesn’t call for much frying or grilling, and its many braised and steamed dishes are right down the microwave’s alley.

All true, but the word “Moghul” is probably in the book title because it sounded good with “microwave.” Like Julie Sahni’s other works, this one casts its net wider than usual Indian recipe collection. It includes not only Moghul and the closely related Punjabi cuisine, familiar to us in Indian restaurants, but Goanese and Malabar styles from the west of India, Madrasi cooking from the southeast and the little-known cuisines of Bengal and Assam in the northeast. She even contrives an approximation of a tandoori style dish (by frying the meat in a browning skillet, instead of roasting it), which is as far from Moghul style as can be.

Nor is this strictly traditional Indian cooking. She gives recipes calling for endive (as a substitute for two different Bengali greens), and she’s not above creating a sort of Indian nouvelle cuisine by undercooking the vegetables in kadhi, though she also gives directions for cooking them to the traditional degree of softness.

“You can cook with a microwave or without a microwave,” she says. “For this book I was looking for dishes that are superior in the microwave in one way or another.”

Some dishes she included simply because they cook so fast, such as a sort of exotic meat loaf called Keema Kabab , done in seven minutes . She’s added bulgur wheat to the recipe, because when the ground meat is microwaved it gives up moisture which the bulgur conveniently absorbs. The result is a little like the Syrian meat loaf called kibbeh but spicier.

Spices and other flavorings retain their freshness in the microwave because of the short cooking time, so the ingredients in some dishes exchange their flavors more readily and make a richer-tasting result.

“My father is a chemist,” she says, “and he has explained it all to me. I’m not a scientist, I don’t approach things that way, but he helped me to understand.” She demonstrates by cooking chicken breast with a coating of spices and cilantro, Murghi Hari Chatni. It cooks in a flash and the meat does have a decidedly spicy flavor.

“Anybody who knows me,” she says, “knows that I avoid cooking with oil whenever possible.” Apart from obvious items that are usually deep-fried such as pappadum and the vegetable fritters called pakoda , she likes the microwave for Bombay Coconut Shrimp, a dish she always felt was spoiled by the traditional method of frying.

Thick preparations such as lentil dishes don’t scorch and develop clumps in a microwave, she points out. It’s the only way to cook the Bombay dish dhanshak correctly, in her opinion; with any other method you have to stir the lentils and vegetables to keep them from scorching, and in so doing you break up the chicken breast.

“I don’t say the microwave is a perfect tool,” she says. “It’s imperfect--all tools are imperfect. It’s a cooking technique, superior to other methods in certain fields as the food processor is to the knife for certain things.” She is peeved at the people who have food processors but still disdain the microwave: “It’s not ignorance, it’s just prejudice.”

She actually clenches her fist when she speaks of it. Yes, she’s still the same Julie Sahni.

“In all my 22 years of bringing Indian food to the American public,” Julie Sahni writes, “I have never mentioned this preparation.” Reason: The original, pre-microwave version is cooked by deep frying, which in her opinion not only makes an excessively oily dish but spoils the flavor of the coconut. NB: All ingredients must be at room temperature when cooking begins. BOMBAY COCONUT SHRIMP (Narial Jheenga)

1/2 cup dried unsweetened coconut flakes

1/2 pound (14 to 16) medium to large shrimp

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon crushed or grated ginger root

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns, crushed

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon cornstarch

Juice of 1/2 small lemon

Spread coconut in 10-inch microwaveable pan. Toast uncovered on HIGH (100% POWER) in 650- to 700-watt oven 3 minutes, or until pale gold. (Coconut will color unevenly.) Remove from oven and transfer coconut into shallow bowl.

Shell and devein shrimp, leaving tails on. Wash thoroughly and pat dry. Place shrimp in bowl and add garlic, ginger, lemon juice, black pepper, cumin, salt and cornstarch. Mix well to coat with spices. Lift shrimp by tail, one at time, and dip in toasted coconut, coating lightly but evenly. In microwaveable cooking dish, arrange shrimp in circle, with tails toward center.

Cover and cook on HIGH 1 minute 30 seconds, or until just done. Remove shrimp from oven and serve hot, at room temperature or cold, sprinkled with lemon juice. Makes 4 appetizer or 2 main-course servings.

Any combination of herbs can be used, but Julie Sahni herself prefers mostly cilantro with just a touch of the others. This dish works just as well with fish, shrimp or scallops and the total cooking time is the same: 7 minutes. NB: All ingredients must be at room temperature when cooking begins. ZESTY LEMON CILANTRO CHICKEN (Murghi Hari Chatni)

1 1/2 pounds skinned, boneless chicken breasts

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons light vegetable oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons julienne-cut ginger root

1 to 4 fresh hot green chiles, stemmed, seeded and minced

1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions, both green and white parts

1/2 cup packed chopped mixed herbs (cilantro, mint, basil and thyme)

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Place chicken breasts flat on work surface and slice horizontally into halves, making thin scaloppini. Cut each thin slice in half lengthwise and put in bowl. Add garlic, cumin, sugar and salt. Toss well and reserve. Roll up chicken.

Place oil in 10-inch microwaveable pan with lid and microwave, uncovered, on HIGH (100% POWER) in 650- to 700-watt carousel oven 3 minutes. Remove from oven. Add rolled chicken and turn to coat with oil.

Add lemon juice, ginger, chiles, green onions and herb mixture. Toss chicken to coat and cover with lid. Cook on HIGH 4 minutes, or until chicken is cooked and tender. Remove from oven. Uncover, sprinkle with lemon zest and replace cover. Let chicken stand, covered, 2 minutes before serving. Makes 4 servings.

“All you do,” says Julie Sahni of this dish, “is combine the ingredients, pat them down into a pie plate, and cook. In a matter of minutes the cake emerges, lightly puffed and full of fragrance.” NB: All ingredients must be at room temperature when cooking begins. SAVORY KEEMA CAKE (Keema Kabab)

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef round

3 tablespoons bulgur wheat

1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 large egg

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon crushed or grated ginger root

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/3 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 tablespoons finely chopped mint leaves or 1 tablespoon crushed dried mint

2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro

Combine beef, bulgur, walnuts, bread crumbs, tomato paste, egg, onion, garlic, ginger, cumin, pepper, cayenne, kosher salt, mint and cilantro in bowl. Mix thoroughly. Pat into microwaveable 10-inch pan or quiche dish.

Cook, uncovered, on HIGH (100% POWER) in 650- to 700-watt carousel oven 7 minutes, or until meat is cooked and wood pick insert in middle of cake comes out clean. Remove from oven. Let cake rest 5 minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings.

“This fruit-filled chutney is one of my very favorites,” Sahni writes, “ because not only is it wonderfully flavored and amazingly easy to prepare--it is extremely versatile. Try it with tandoori dishes, kebabs, roast pork, or your Thanksgiving turkey. It’s great on breakfast toast too.”

SWEET CRANBERRY-PISTACHIO CHUTNEY WITH CALIFORNIA BLACK FIGS (Karonda Chatni)

1 (12-ounce) package cranberries

1 medium orange

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon mustard seeds, lightly crushed

1/3 cup shelled raw unsalted pistachio nuts

2/3 cup black California figs, or any other fig or dark raisins

Pick through cranberries, removing all stems and rotting berries. Dice orange into 1/4-inch pieces with skin and white pith. Pick out seeds and discard.

Combine cranberries and orange with lemon juice, shallots, ginger, sugar, kosher salt, cinnamon, cumin, cayenne and mustard seeds in 2 1/2-quart microwave-safe casserole or souffle dish. Cover with lid. Microwave on HIGH (100% POWER) in 650-to 700-watt carousel oven 4 minutes. Uncover and continue cooking on HIGH 5 minutes or until chutney is boiling and cranberries begin to burst open, stirring once. Remove from oven.

Uncover dish. Stir in pistachios and figs. Cover and let stand until completely cool. Spoon chutney into sterilized jars and seal. Cover tightly. Keep stored in refrigerator up to several months. Allow chutney to ripen for 1 day before serving. Makes 3 cups.