Especially with the health conscious, sauteing has become a popular cooking technique. Improve your cooking with the following tips.
Occasionally, you'll hear that you can sauté with water instead of butter or oil. This is technically not sautéing, but you can sauté with less fat than you'd normally use. Just keep the heat low, and when your vegetables begin to brown, add a little water and keep briskly stirring until the water evaporates.
Why sauté? The oil brings out the flavors in the foods you're cooking. Have you ever wondered why so many recipes begin with sautéing onions? The oil and stirring bring out the flavor of the onions and provide a rich base for the rest of the dish. But don't stop with just sautéing onions. The flavor of most meats and vegetables can be enhanced with a little sautéing.
Sautéing is simple, but there are a few things to remember in order to get the best results. When heating the oil to sauté, don't let the oil get too hot. Once the oil gets smoky, it has overheated and should be discarded. How do you know when it's ready? Just before oil gets smoky, it gets a rippled look. As soon as you detect ripples on the surface of the oil, add your ingredients quickly. The moisture in the meat or vegetables will cool the oil.
Which kind of fat to use? Most people prefer the taste of foods sautéed in butter, but, unfortunately, butter burns quite easily. You must watch it very closely. Olive oil doesn't burn as quickly, but the flavor isn't as rich as butter. So a good compromise is to use part butter and part olive oil.
Will any pan do? Any pan that's big enough to hold all of your ingredients will work fine, but a heavy-bottomed sauté pan will work best of all. The heavy bottom allows you more leeway with your timing. With a thin-bottomed pan, your ingredients will burn more quickly, so work fast and don't walk away from the stove.
Preheating your pan before you add even the fats will help you avoid burning anything. As soon as you add your oil and butter, the butter will melt and foam and you'll be ready to go. If you had the butter when the pan is cold, you're likely to walk away and chop something or wash something while you wait for it to melt. By the time you turn around, it's brown and smoky.
Avoid sautéing vegetables longer than necessary. When the colors are enhanced and they're still a little crispy, turn off the heat. When you're sautéing meat, avoid using a fork to turn it over. The punctures will allow juice to escape, and the meat will dry out.
Experiment with different combinations of meats and vegetables. The more you practice sautéing, the better you'll get, and the more satisfied you'll be with your cooking. Sautéing is such a common cooking technique, it's well worth trying to perfect it.
