My first post for Made In, back in October, was in part about the importance of bringing us back to basics. And now we’ve come full circle: for this, my last post, I’m going to get into a foundational cooking technique—sautéing.
What Is a Sauté, Anyway?
Sautéing just sounds so intimidating – or at least that’s how I felt fifty years ago. But it’s just the French (and the culinary elite) messing around with us, and it’s also a short way of saying “cooking in a skillet with some fat over pretty high heat,” which is less scary-sounding but not as elegant.
Regardless of what you call it, sautéing might just be the foundational cooking technique, in that you can pretty much sauté anything and you probably won’t mess it up too badly. It’s just cooking food in a skillet—I like a stainless steel pan here—usually in enough butter or oil, to film the pan – although you can use more if you like. (I’d call that “shallow-frying,” but the borders are gray and permeable. The idea is to “surprise” the food – a little spattering is normal - to create a crust, to brown the outside while the inside cooks but doesn’t overcook.
The Rules of Sautés
Here, a few rules.
- Before adding the food, make sure the fat is almost smoking – shimmering is a good sign or, if you’re using butter, waiting until the foam subsides (but before the butter browns). You can add a pinch of flour or the like and, if it sizzles, the fat is ready. That’ll get you the browning we all yearn for.
- Make sure your food is thin enough to cook through to the center—no more than an inch is a good benchmark.
- Don’t crowd the pan unless you actually want your food steamed.
- And please don’t try to move or turn the pieces until they release easily from the pan; when that happens, it means you’ve got a nice crust going.
- Be patient and let your food be. It’ll be okay.
Stainless steel pans can be challenging because they’re not nonstick, but that won’t matter if you use them correctly. I love how durable they are, and for even heating, stainless steel really can’t be beat. Plus, you’ve got that sheen of fat as insurance. Just keep an eye on the cooking process.
What to Sauté
One of the best animal products to cook in stainless steel is shrimp, and since we’re talking about basics here, shrimp is among the easiest things you can cook; if you have good shrimp (keep reading), it does not take much in terms of ingredients or time to get it tasting good. Garlic, chili powder, parsley, olive oil; that’s really it, and it’ll be good with bread, over rice, tossed with pasta, or stuffed into tacos. Try the aptly titled Simplest and Best Shrimp to see it in action.
A note on shrimp: As with all ingredients, but especially seafood and shrimp, try to find some that are wild-caught and domestic to avoid issues concerning sustainability and labor. (Or use another protein in shrimp’s stead: Sliced squid, chicken chunks, or even tofu cubes are all good substitutes.)
