To sauté you start with a hot pan and add a little fat (like olive oil or butter). Then you add the food you want to cook. It is a quick way to cook tender pieces of meat, fish, and vegetables (like chicken breast, shrimp or trout, and onions or spinach). Sautéing is similar to stir frying (see page 28); the only substantial difference is the type of pan that is used.
When sautéing, make sure you don’t add too much food to the pan—this would lower the cooking temperature, and you want your pan to stay hot. Instead, when you want to sauté a lot of food, or if you only have a small pan, work in multiple batches.
One of the great things about sautéing is that a sauce can be made from the bits and pieces that get stuck to the pan. In French these bits are called fond, and they are the foundation of the sauce.
The right pan for sautéing is a sauté pan, or skillet. The sloped sides of a sauté pan make it easy to turn food over with a spatula while cooking. Heavy pans are best since they conduct heat evenly, allowing for better cooking and easier cleanup. Inexpensive nonstick pans don’t work well for high-heat cooking since they do not brown the food very well.
Many types of meats, seafood, and vegetables are good for sautéing. Use tender cuts of meat and types of vegetables, but they also have to be of the right size. If the food you are sautéing is too big or thick, it will burn on the outside before it is cooked through. All the pieces should be the same thickness and size, otherwise some pieces will cook faster than others. Meat should be cut to an individual portion size or smaller. Ideal foods for sautéing include:
Oil gives food a nice color and texture, and has nutritional value (it’s a fat; see page 44). Use only as much oil as needed to keep the food from sticking to the pan.
Types of good oils that can be used for sautéing, stir frying, and pan frying include: