Sautée: a French term meaning tossed (from sauter to jump) or the Latin term saltāre meaning to dance (from salīre to spring).
Jumping Beans
Sautée has always been intimidating to me. To take a heavy hot pan and to move it in such a way so that it’s extremely hot contents go flying in the air and (hopefully) land back in the pan, instead of on the floor, seems dangerous. Nevertheless, I must face my fears and put aside the spatula.
I practiced with the fairly lightweight ingredient of frozen potato strips. Of course, you know them as French Fries (Trader Joe’s Handsome Cut Fries are my favorite). I started to use a spatula to flip them, then courage took over and I decided that this must be done by sautée. I took both hands and secured the handle and shook the hot pan. A couple tossed over, then a few more, and a few more. A couple of times, I was able to toss nearly all of them, with only a couple casualties hitting the floor. In the end, they had cooked fairly evenly, more so than if I had used the spatula to turn them.
I can’t say that I became comfortable with the technique, but I did feel like I had been to the gym for an upper body workout. Chef Husband teaches that one should start with trying to flip a piece of bread (not over heat) and then move on to dry beans for practice. Perhaps while watching a Hallmark movie or Fixer Upper, I should do my frypan workout.