If you are looking for a quick, healthy and yummy way of cooking... do it the right way!
We can sauté practically any ingredient; everything is possible as long as it comes in small pieces. Pork meat, beef, poultry, veal, even lamb, duck, firm fish, seafood, grains, pasta and of course, all kinds of vegetables.
The Latin masters in this technique are my friends from Peru, whose cooking has a fascinating Chinese influence. But we all love a sauté to feel its different textures and its great flavor in each bite.
Your ideal partner for a perfect sauté will be a wok, a kind of pan in the shape of a bowl, which you see all the time in restaurants but have not dared to use at home. Its design helps concentrate the heat at the bottom keeping the sides cold and creating different areas that help make a good cooking for a great variety of foods simultaneously. You can buy a good and easy to handle wok for your kitchen around $25-$75, depending on your budget and type of stove. The one I use is Imusa brand and I paid only $30.
In order to achieve a tasty and fun dish choose ingredients in various colors and textures. Add to the wok a minimal quantity of sunflower oil or peanut oil and cut all the ingredients in small cubes or fine juliennes for a quick cooking. Start with an ingredient that add a lot of flavor and aroma like ginger, garlic, chiles or chives, then the meat, vegetables, rice or cooked pasta (depending on the recipe) and at the end, add the herbs like cilantro, parsley or basil. The secret lies on the preparation of all the ingredients before beginning, adding first those ingredients that take longer to cook, keeping the wok at a high temperature and stirring constantly.
Get creative! Prepare your own sauté loin, chaufa rice (Peruvian style Chinese rice), some noodles with chicken and vegetables or shrimp with ají amarillo, coriander seeds and coconut milk... The Kitchen Doesn't Bite!
