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Note: If your strips go a little stale on you after a day or two, lay them on paper towels and microwave on high for a minute or two to drive out the moisture.

Software:

2 quarts canola oil for frying

1 very large russet baking potato

Coarse salt

Coarsely cracked black pepper

Hardware:

Salad spinner

Electric fryer or heavy Dutch

oven fitted with a fat/candy

thermometer

Vegetable peeler

Splatter guard (optional)

Large slotted spoon

Draining rig

This application is even better suited to sweet potatoes. Since they contain a higher amount of sugar, they will burn quickly, so pull them when they hit a light mahogany. Oh and, if you don’t mind, leave the peels on.

Sauté: A Toss in the Pan

At the lighter end of the frying continuum there is the sauté. I say “the” sauté because it is both a method of cooking and a type of dish based on that method—“waiters” will say “a sauté of baby leeks,” while “servers” will say “sautéed onions.” Ah, nomenclature’s a cruel mistress.

Literally translated, sauter means “to jump” in French. A chef (yes, a French one) said that when trying to dance your way from the bar to your beach blanket on a summer day on the Riviera, the hot pebbles of the beach make you “sauter.”

So the logic here is flawed even if the method isn’t. While it’s true that food doesn’t cook in the air, maybe that’s the point. If it were to remain stationary on the bottom of the pan, the small pieces of food would probably reach a nice toastlike consistency while the inside was still raw.

What you need:

• high heat

• a heavy, wide pan with sloped sides

• a small amount of heat-friendly fat20

• food cut into uniform shape and size

• seasonings (from salt and pepper to dried and fresh herbs, flavorful liquids such as vinegars and juices, and flavorful oils such as sesame and chile)

• tongs for playing with your food

The Pan

Without the right pan you cannot sauté, which is not to say you have to have a sauté pan. As discussed in the section on searing, a dense pan is going to heat more evenly than a light one, especially if it’s a metal sandwich of steel wrapped around a slice of aluminum or, even better (but more costly), copper. Since this pan needs to move during cooking, eschew cast iron unless you have anchor tattoos on each forearm and a girlfriend named Olive.

SAUTÉ TIPS

• Always include aromatics such as onions, garlic, ginger and shallots, which release huge amounts of flavor and aroma when heated.

• Don’t skip a final touch. Fresh herbs, a splash of wine or vinegar, even a teaspoon of orange zest bring a lot of flavor to the party in a hurry. Don’t add these early on, though, or their essential oils will go up in smoke (well, steam actually).

Since crowding the pan leads to stewing rather than sautéing, go for a wide-open plane of metal. I’ve got identical All-Clad sauté pans in both 10 and 12 inches. They cost a bundle but my grandkids will fight over them one day and darn it, that feels good.

Non-stick Sauté Pans

Yes, you can cook with amazingly small amounts of fat if you use the right non-stick pan, and that can be a good thing…maybe. The problem is, fat clings and conducts heat. Non-stick coatings (I’m a Teflon man myself) may conduct heat well but they do not cling. Therefore, there will be no flavorful browned bits on the bottom of the pan to deglaze and convert to sauce. And that’s just a shame. That said, if a sauce is not in the offing, non-sticks do a fine job.

In the last couple of years, Teflon has come under considerable fire for giving off dangerous fumes. I first became aware of this in 2003, when several bird owners filled me in on the fact that Teflon fumes can easily kill exotics like parrots and cockatiels.

Although the verdict is still out on the general health hazards of Teflon, I’ve decided to play it safe and have discontinued its use for high-heat cooking like sautéing.

Fats for Sautés

You don’t need a lot, but you do need some. A thin coating of fat brings out flavors