A gastronomic world within reach

COOKBOOKS I buy overseas have always been my idea of trips that keep on giving. If I pick up a locally published recipe for panelle or Wiener schnitzel or turnip dumplings, I know I might have a chance of tasting Palermo or Salzburg or Hong Kong when I try it at home.

But my horizons expanded radically when I got back from India with my latest acquisition, a Rajasthani cookbook by “India’s No. 1 cookery author,” Tarla Dalal. After dragging it thousands of miles through three airports over 24 hours, I logged onto the website listed on the cover and found the same recipes, and many more, in a quickly searchable database, with no end of hand-holding for non-Indian cooks. Recipes are written in English but for Indians who know ingredients by different names, and so there’s a nifty little glossary: Type in jeera or besan and you get the English name (cumin, chickpea flour) plus suggested recipes, along with a photo understandable in any language. Even better, there’s an “Ask Tarla” function for e-mail answers from the author.

Just when security nightmares are making flying about as appealing as a root canal, the Internet is finally making it possible to stay home and taste the real India or the real Thailand. Or revisit Italy or France or the Caribbean, not to mention Ireland and Australia.

It’s virtual travel at its best. Sites such as epicurious.com have been sorting out the world’s food for years, but too often what they serve is more L.A. than Lombardy. The recipes are culled from mainstream magazines (Bon Appetit, Gourmet), and local oddities such as souse (pickled pig parts) from Barbados or even temptations such as cheesy-hammy tarte flambee from Alsace are not exactly high on their lists. More focused sites make you realize the world is much bigger than just a few favored nations with mainstream appeal.

Far-flung ingredients included

With the first three Dalal dishes I tried I could have been in India without the jet lag. Unlike the recipes in so many cookbooks in my collection, these were written not for the great American masses who timid publishers dream will buy into a bestseller but for cooks in the country where they originated. When a dal needs 12 seasonings, including dried mango powder or fresh curry leaves, Dalal specifies every one. And the system works halfway around the world because anyone whose supermarket is asafetida deficient can just click to sites that will ship the pungent powder overnight.

No longer do origin-conscious cooks have to abandon all hope of re-creating a dish for lack of ingredients or understanding, or settle for recipes made so bland we could be eating anywhere. As it has with political news and starlets’ sex videos, the Internet is removing the traditional filters between information and user. No editor is deciding to omit the nigella seeds because most of us would never know the difference. (Twenty years ago, I remember, most “Mexican” cookbooks never bothered with chipotles or cilantro.)

Easily navigated sites such as www.tarladalal.com make “How to Cook Anything” look like “Cooking for Dinosaurs.” Just in the last couple of years the Internet has evolved into a more orderly, more expansive resource, and search engines such as Google will take you anywhere straightaway. Web addresses have gotten simpler. (Forget http and tricky colons and backslashes; even www no longer is always necessary.) The most isolated cooks and remote destinations are setting up sophisticated sites with authentic recipes. And to top it off, both printers and Internet access seemingly get faster every week.

On sites such as www.1worldrecipes.com, though, you can find the kinds of dishes that are hidden in the crude little cookbooks I’ve brought home from individual islands in the Caribbean, and the ones in Italian or Spanish I’ve invested in in Europe. On this site, a dish called feroce d’avocat, avocado with crab and super-hot Scotch bonnet peppers, replicates one I know from Grenada, for instance. I also found the national dish of Curacao there: keshi yena, a whole round of Edam stuffed with a chicken picadillo with raisins and olives, then baked. I could almost have saved myself a cookbook from that trip.

Other options are literally site-specific. If you want to try the best dish from Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, the official tourism site (www.discoverlanzarote .com) includes the very same recipe I had to buy in a cookbook. It shows photos and directions for making papas arrugadas with two mojos -- potatoes cooked in salt water until they wrinkle, then dunked in garlicky green and red salsas.

Then there are all the huge sites designed for heat-seeking chefs rather than home cooks; these link to good recipe databases. The site www.culinaryforum.com will hook you up with a dozen or more solid sites, while www.chef2chef.net is a virtual atlas of promising sites.

The Internet is an especially valid passport to Italy. For all the superb regional cookbooks in print these days, there are probably more websites with distinct advantages. Not only are they easier to search (no index can compare with a computer) but they also lean more toward exotica. On www.capriflavors.com, for instance, I found a good rendition of spaghetti aum aum, with a cheesy eggplant sauce I ate repeatedly on Capri. The site www.italianmade.com sponsored by the Italian Trade Commission, also has almost as many regional specialties as Italy has pastas, including sweet pumpkin tortelloni and buttery fontina gnocchi -- and a very useful glossary.

Commercial sites turn out to be surprisingly good sources of authentic recipes. The site www.agferrari.com is in business to sell Italian products, particularly high-end oils and vinegars, but its recipe collection is impressive. It’s where I finally found sgroppino al limone, an amazing drink from the Veneto made with Prosecco, vodka and lemon sorbet that I first tasted on the Sicilian island of Pantelleria. Neither my Venice souvenir cookbook nor my Pantelleria one included it, and I had to get an Italian I met on the island to e-mail me his idea of a recipe.

Unfortunately, it only listed ingredients, so I made a drink that was about 60% alcohol. Italians may cook by feel, but Americans need proportions. Agferrari provided a real recipe, one I was confident enough to tweak (adding more fizzy Prosecco, for starters).

For innovative recipes, sites focused on restaurants, run by either individuals or groups, can open up new worlds of contemporary cooking. The site www.miettas.com, set up by a restaurant guide, is a good destination for anyone wondering what’s cooking in Australia (and it’s not kangaroo). Even though Australian cookbooks are becoming internationally available, the cuisine there changes as fast as ours does, and this site reflects the situation. You can find any number of over-the-top creations by chefs making the most of local ingredients, both exotic, like yabbies (river crustaceans) and mainstream, like goat cheese.

Chefs who see themselves as the next Mario also are producing sites with serious recipes, letting patrons reconnect back home. One of the better destinations for anyone who will never make it to Northern Ireland is www.gourmetireland.com, run by Paul and Jeanne Rankin, a legendary chef couple who use local foraged foods in 21st century ways. Ten years ago, I had to tote their two cookbooks all the way from Belfast after a stunning meal at their Michelin one-star Roscoff, and now their latest concoctions (celery leaf tempura, smoked haddock hash) are a click away. Then there’s www.sanjeevkapoor.com, which showcases India’s celebrity chef whose food I liked at Grain of Salt in Calcutta -- dishes like fish curry and corn and paneer croquettes.

My ignorant American side tends to give the highest ratings to sites that are all in English, but most do have a translation option. In many cases, though, you might be better off getting out your old travel dictionary. Some enticing sites a French friend swears by, such as www .gastronomie.com and www.marmiton .com, are excellent only for Francophones -- the English phrases are laughable. (Marmiton has recipes with titles such as Pot With the Angels and Typed Express Train; one called Soup Dawn ends with this mysterious instruction: “Add to the cooking of vegetables a calf bulge which will be able to consume itself hot or cold.”)

Unlike cookbooks, websites are usually updated, and regularly. Errors can get fixed, and many sites are as interactive as Tarla Dalal’s. Some, like 1worldrecipes .com, let users rate recipes. (A suspicious number, I have to say, hold five stars.)

Unfortunately, the feedback is sometimes essential. Recipes published without that old filter -- the editor -- tend to pick up glitches. Even the keshi yena recipe, which is identical on at least a dozen websites, is troublesome. The massive filling overflows the cheese, and the cheese can melt from your oven halfway to Willemstad. The flavors are exceptional, though, and the one recipe that advised using layers of sliced cheese rather than a whole round turned out to be the solution in the L.A. Times Test Kitchen. Not surprisingly, the layered effect was actually the way I had encountered the dish in Curacao, although there it had banana leaves enclosing both cheese and filling.

Seductive access

Most sites are free, but some charge a fee for maximum access. Tarladalal.com offers a fair number of the author’s recipes and a huge database of those contributed by readers, but if you want more of the real deal it will cost you $25 for six months or $40 for a year. As a convert to curries, I thought it was worth the price. Dalal’s “Rajasthani Cookbook,” from one of the more seductive regions of India, costs about $5, but that’s in a bookstore in Bombay. You won’t find it on www.amazon.com at any price. (The few titles by Dalal that are available are not, shall we say, her masterworks.)

The only risk of traveling virtually and cooking locally is that you may not stop with authentic recipes and no-substitutions ingredients. Soon you’ll want the real equipment. I’m the new owner of a kadai, the Indian wok, which is the best tool for deep frying in nominal oil. I saw it in action in Bangalore and then online and had to have it. Now I’m thinking about tracking down some of the wines I have had to carry home cushioned in my dirty laundry from far-flung places. I know Lanzarote’s El Grifo is out there in cyberspace somewhere.

That little “continue shopping” button you see while looking at recipes can be dangerous. Only on a real trip can you delude yourself into believing money is no issue.

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Exotic ingredients are a click away

Whether you’re looking for fenugreek leaves or African bird peppers, real Muenster cheese or Spanish saffron, these are a few websites selling ingredients that make recipes from other countries as accessible as Betty Crocker’s.

* Kalustyans.com, the Internet branch of one of New York City’s best-stocked specialty markets, carries 4,000 items from myriad cuisines but is particularly strong on Indian and Middle Eastern. Spices, legumes, teas, honeys and hard-to-find items from jaggery to dried mango powder are available along with some cookware, including the Indian kadai for deep-frying.

* Ethnicgrocer.com offers a wide range of ingredients from 15 countries (France to the Philippines). You can shop by product or by country -- clicking to Greece for pomegranate molasses and Dalmatian sage, to Thailand for palm sugar and curry pastes. If you’re undecided, or want to cross cuisines, there are recipes from all 15 online.

* Igourmet.com is particularly strong on imported cheeses, from Australia, Spain, France and most other countries, at very good prices. But it also carries an amazing range of other high-end specialty foods; spoonbill caviar and pine nut oil; Callebaut chocolate and carob syrup; truffle honey and popcorn rice; three kinds of escargots and the dishes to bake them in. The recipe database is deep and wide.

* Agferrari.com is an excellent source of top-of-the-line regional Italian products, from the usual olive oils and vinegars to obscure caper salsas and fregola (Sicilian couscous). It has local pastas in shapes rarely seen outside Italy (calamari, occhi di lupo -- literally eye of the wolf), salumi from around the country, Sardinian herbs, Tuscan chestnut cream and even Vin Santo and other wines.

* Tienda.com specializes in Spanish products, such as piquillo peppers, paprikas, bacalao, chorizo and those olive oils that go so well with potatoes, and it too has a good recipe database.

-- Regina Schrambling

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Rajasthani kadhi (chickpea dumplings in spicy sauce)

Time: 1 hour

Servings: 8 (about 40 dumplings)

Note: This is adapted from www.tarladalal.com. Be sure to use Indian chili powder.

Pakodi (dumplings)

2 cups Bengal gram flour (besan/chickpea flour)

1/4cup chopped cilantro, plus 1 tablespoon for garnish

1/2teaspoon turmeric

1/8teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

4 serrano chiles, finely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

Oil for deep frying

1. Mix together the flour, cilantro, turmeric, baking soda, cumin seeds, chiles and salt. Add enough water to make a thick paste (about one-half cup).

2. Heat the oil and drop small, rounded 1-inch spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil. Cook until crisp and golden brown, about 1 minute. Drain on absorbent paper.

Spice mixture

2 tablespoons oil

1/2stick cinnamon

2 cloves

2 small, dried red chiles

1/2teaspoon fennel seeds

1/2teaspoon coriander seeds

1/2teaspoon cumin seeds

1/4teaspoon fenugreek seeds

2 teaspoons grated ginger

4 to 6 curry leaves

1/2teaspoon Indian chili powder

1. Heat the oil in a small skillet over low heat and fry the cinnamon, cloves, chiles, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, ginger, curry leaves and chili powder, stirring often, for 2 minutes.

2. Scrape into a bowl and set aside.

Kadhi (sauce) and assembly

4 cups whole-milk yogurt

1/4 cup Bengal gram flour (besan/chickpea flour)

1/4teaspoon turmeric

1/2teaspoon salt

Chopped cilantro

1. Mix the yogurt, gram flour, turmeric and salt in a saucepan with one-half cup water. Bring to a low simmer.

2. Add the spice mixture. Stir to combine. Simmer 10 to 12 minutes.

3. Place the pakodis in the sauce and stir to coat the dumplings. Remove and place on serving plates and sprinkle with chopped cilantro. Serve hot.

Each serving: 327 calories; 10 grams protein; 22 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams fiber; 23 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 16 mg. cholesterol; 242 mg. sodium.

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Sgroppino al limone

Time: 5 minutes

Servings: 4 to 6

Note: This is adapted from

agferrari.com.

1 pint lemon sorbet

4 tablespoons vodka

1 cup Prosecco

1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Chill 4 to 6 Champagne flutes.

2. In a bowl, whisk sorbet until smooth. Gradually whisk in the vodka, Prosecco and heavy cream. Pour the mixture into a pitcher and serve immediately in the chilled flutes. (The drink will separate if left standing.)

Each of 6 servings: 144 calories;

1 gram protein; 16 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 4 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 14 mg. cholesterol; 11 mg. sodium.

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Keshi yena (stuffed cheese)

Time: 2 hours

Servings: 6 to 8

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup sliced onion

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/3cup chopped bell pepper

1scant teaspoon seeded, stemmed, minced habanero chile

2 tablespoons sliced green

olives

1 1/2 teaspoons capers

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped parsley

1/4 cup raisins

2 teaspoons tomato paste

2 canned peeled tomatoes, chopped

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 tablespoon mustard

1 pound cooked shredded chicken

Salt and pepper to taste

2 eggs

1 whole (2-pound) Edam cheese

1. Heat the oil in a medium skillet. Cook the onion, garlic, bell pepper and habanero until soft, about 6 to 7 minutes. Stir in the olives, capers, parsley, raisins, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, mustard and chicken. Cover and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes, stirring often to avoid burning the bottom. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cool to room temperature, then beat the eggs and stir in.

2. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the cheese into slices one-fourth inch thick. Line the bottom and sides of an 11-inch x 11-inch (2 1/2-quart) baking dish with two-thirds of the slices. Spoon the filling over. Cover the top with the remaining cheese slices.

3. Place the baking dish in the oven and bake 40 minutes, until the cheese is soft and golden brown.

4. Serve hot with toasted French bread slices or tortillas.

Each of 8 servings: 588 calories;

46 grams protein; 10 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 40 grams fat; 22 grams saturated fat; 201 mg. cholesterol; 1,277 mg. sodium.