Techniques - Sautéing

     Sautéing is possibly one of the easiest techniques that I've heard people describe as "difficult."  Just because it's French doesn't mean that you have to learn how to pronounce L'Arc de Triomphe correctly to do it.  Let's start with the basics.
     Sauté comes from the French verb sauter (strangely pronounced the same) which means "to jump."  The concept behind it is that you are supposed to cook items in a pan by making them jump.  Doesn't that sound fun?
     On it's basic level, sautéing involves a very small amount of oil  being heated to a frying temperature (about 300º F) then small pieces of food are placed in the hot oil and cooked while keeping them moving either with a utensil or through moving the pan.  Many people confuse sautéing with pan frying in which a slightly larger amount of oil is heated similarly, but larger pieces of food such as steaks or sausages are placed in the oil to cook.  When one side is cooked, the food is turned over.  Basically, pan frying is what you do to bacon.
     To sauté something, the first important thing to keep in mind is that your food must be cut in fairly small pieces.  When I sauté a food, it's usually in 1/4" inch cubes or smaller.  That allows the food to cook very quickly.  That's the reason you have to keep the pieces moving.
     Next, you need to think about the oil you're using to sauté your food.  Any chef worth their salt will answer without pause, "extra virgin olive oil."  However, that's not really the case.  In fact, my luxury entry tomorrow is all about when you need EVOO and when you don't.  For sautéing onions, garlic, or herbs, I would recommend pure EVOO, but when you're sautéing meat or spices (differences between herbs and spices going up someday), use a canola oil or butter.  If you want the nutty flavor of EVOO on your meat or spices, I'd split your oil half and half with canola oil or butter (butter's better but more expensive).
     Once you've figured out what oil you're going to use, the next question is, how much do you use?  The thing that makes sautéing unique is that it's actually a technique that uses oil and is considered healthy.  That's because you really don't need a lot of oil to make this work.  In fact, most culinary sources say that if you have any more than barely covers the flat bottom of your skillet or sauté pan.  The trick to using as little as possible is to coat the pan while it's hot.
     Before you start heating your pan, please remember that non-stick surfaces emit toxic fumes at 300º F.  Combine that with the knowledge that you're going to be heating your oil to about 300º F and you need to try to sauté in a non-coated pan.  If you don't have one, you can still do this, but be a little more careful.   When I start to sauté something, I turn the fire under my pan about 30 seconds to a minute before I put the oil in.  Then I add 1 to 2 tablespoons of the oil of my choice to the pan.  Once the oil's in the pan, start tilting the pan in different directions.  Tilt it in one direction until the oil hits the crease between the bottom and the side then reverse directions.  Continue tilting until most of your pan is covered by oil.  If at any point you feel you have too little oil, you can add a bit, but make sure you really, really need it.
     Now that your pan is coated, how do you know it's hot enough?  If you're cooking meat, vegetables, herbs, or spices, it doesn't really matter.  The items will heat up slowly and cook in the oil.  If, however, you're cooking something that's been dredged in flour, the oil temperature is much more important.  For this, sprinkle a touch of flour in the oil and see if it bubbles.  If it doesn't, wait a few minutes more and try again.  I'll take this moment to mention that, if you're cooking something dredged in flour, you probably should be pan frying instead of sautéing, but the premise is the same.
     Once your items are in the pan, they're probably going to start sizzling.  If they don't, they will.  You now have two choices:  shaken or stirred.  If this is the first time you're cooking this way, grab your wooden spoon or rubber spatula and start moving the food around the pan quickly and thoroughly.  If you're doing it correctly, you should have everything coated in oil pretty quickly after you start.  Move the food around the pan until it's fully cooked.  For onions, they'll become more yellow and translucent while meats will simply change color.  It'll take a while, but you'll eventually know how each type of food looks as it cooks.
     If you want to sauté the traditional way, you need to start moving your pan.  Shake it thoroughly, moving the food over the full surface of the pan.  If you want to get really fancy, learn to flip the items out of the pan and back into it.  I'll cover how to do that later.  For now, shake the pan really hard or use a utensil to move it around.  Good luck and good cooking!

Tell me about your sautéing attempts! Comments? Questions? Tweet to @cookingcheap