FLAIR FOR COOKING
Sizzling in the Kitchen
After a season of sizzling on the grill, it is time to crank up the burners on the stove for a little frying, pan searing and sautéing. Each technique offers its own culinary magic, but there are a few basic things to remember.
In spite of my Southern raising, moving into my first apartment as a teen, I had very little actual cooking experience. In my first attempt to fry, I heated vegetable oil and waited in vain for it to bubble. Calling a friend for advice, she suggested I drop a small crumb from the potatoes I intended to cook into the skillet. If it sizzled, the oil was ready for me to put in the potatoes. Good advice. I suppose I should have mentioned to her that, expecting it to boil like water, I had been watching the oil on medium-high for more than 20 minutes. Tossing in the limp, wet potatoes made quite a combustible situation. So heat is essential, but timing is everything.
In deep frying, proper temperature is key. For a total submersion, the oil should be hot enough that when the ingredients are introduced into the skillet or fryer, the moisture inside the food steams and repels the oil. This seals in the avor and limits the amount of oil absorbed by the food during the frying process. While deep fried gets a bad rap for being unhealthy, if cooked at a proper temperature, food such as chicken will absorb relatively little oil.
Searing creates an almost caramelized crust or char, adding delicious layers of flavor to a variety of foods, meat, sh or vegetables. Heat is also essential in pan searing, but the skillet is important, too. Some brands of non-stick coatings do profess to allow a sear. However, the natural metal expansion from preheating uncoated skillets like stainless or cast iron, especially when adding the oil after heating, helps it become considerably less likely to stick.
First, place your skillet on the burner over medium to medium-high heat for a minute or two. As Chef John Strand taught me, the heat is essential; otherwise, the food introduced will simply simmer in its own juices without forming a sear.
According to your recipe, introduce a couple of tablespoons of oil or butter and let it warm through. Here, we do not want the food to stew or fry in a pool of oil, so less is more. If it starts to burn or smoke, your skillet is too hot. Simply lift it from the re for just a moment then return it, adjusting the heat if necessary.
Plan to place your food in the skillet so that it can be left in one place until the bottom has seared, forming a type of crust. Do not move it. Once the first side is seared, flip the food over to sear the second side. From here, lower the heat and cook to desired temperature.
Don’t forget that searing with its limited use of oil usually leaves behind delicious bits of fond in the skillet perfect for reducing into a pan sauce. Simply add a liquid to the skillet and render over low heat as you scrape incorporating the fond and any spices you add into the sauce.
Sauté is another method of cooking over high heat with a relatively small amount of oil to brown the food and add a complexity to the flavor. It is used with ingredients cut into smaller pieces, like chicken and sh with vegetables, for quick, thorough cooking.
Like searing, heat the sauté pan then add your oil, but let the oil also get hot before adding the food. Add food to the pan in even single layers. To maintain the
temperature and allow even access to the heated surface and hot oil for browning, it is important not to overcrowd the sauté pan with food.
Now the toss! The action for sauté is a jerking motion pulling the pan back and forth across the heat flipping the ingredients so that all sides have the opportunity to cook and brown. It is important to keep the ingredients moving without lifting it too far from the burner to prevent losing heat. Proceed until done.
Note that while an actual sauté pan has straight sides and wide at bottom offering a larger heated surface versus a skillet with sloped sides, even if not ideal, they can often be used interchangeably.
There is a pattern here; heat is key. The many types of oil and their smoking points will also make a considerable impact on your frying, searing and sautéing results, but that will have to be another issue. Until then, enjoy sizzling in the kitchen!
Lynn Laird is a writer, fine artist and selfprofessed bon vivant living in Bossier. With “Flair for Cooking,” she seeks out interesting ingredients and techniques to help make everyday meals just a touch more fabulous. She can reached at flairforcooking@gmail. com.
