HOW TO SAUTÉ POTATOES
Potatoes are sautéed in a number of classic potato dishes, including hash browns, rösti, Lyonnaise, Anna, and several potato cakes and pancakes. The point behind sautéeing is the usual one - make the potatoes crispy and browned, with a creamy cooked interior. Also, the potatoes need to taste good and much of their flavor will come from the fat you use for sautéeing. For example, using olive oil will give a more 'floral' hint to the potatoes, and using corn oil has a relatively neutral effect. Butter is another type of fat that is very flavorful in itself and provides a feel of velvety, fine dining. You can also use animal fat like lard or bacon fat or some other type, to give the potatoes a more country-side rustic flavor (sorry for my associations of flavors and life events but that's one beauty of eating varied food). Often, some of the easy-to-get-burned fats (like butter) is added at the end of sautéing (after preceding cooking in oil for example) simply to avoid burning the fat and to add some extra flavor. Such finishing can also be done with e.g. bacon fat, or some of the finer oils.
The best sautéing pans for potatoes are cast-iron pans, because they will make the potato skin very crispy. But whatever pan you choose, make sure it is large enough to accomodate all the potato slices and still have some free space.
For sautéeing you will need potatoes that are neither too starchy nor too young - a moderate amount of starch is best to give the potato a good color and cook it to creaminess. Preparation of the vegetables is simple, just peel them, rinse in water and dry on paper towel, then slice them into thin slices or some other shapes that you desire. If you want to, you can precook the potatoes in water, then dry them, and then sauté them - this is often done in restaurants where time is very essential for getting things out of the kitchen. At home, it is more optional, although it will ensure you that potatoes are cooked AND browned, and not just crispy on the surface and raw in the middle after sautéing. So, the choice is yours. Of course, the usual way to handle these things is to cook them in low heat (in the fat) first to get them soft, and then to raise the heat and brown them - this takes some practice of good timing to know when to switch the heats. If you have just the right thickness of the potatoes, then you will not need to change the heat at all - they will cook perfectly without trouble. If you do wish to pre-cook the potato slices, make sure they are slightly undercooked!
Sautéing potatoes can be done with many different seasoning ingredients, including not only salt and pepper, but also onions, garlic, herbs like thyme or rosemary, and bacon. Some recipes also make use of cream or cheese to give the potatoes more creaminess.
So, for sautéing potatoes prepare the following: a large pan, fat, potato slices (in cold water if you need to store them, but dry them on paper towel before sautéing; or pre-cook them and then dry them), seasonings of your choice, a spatula, and a pan with paper towels to drain the fat from the finished potatoes (if you wish to do so). The sautéing itself is then pretty straightforward. Add a generous amount of fat to the pan and heat it up to moderate-high. Add the potatoes and let them develop a crust on one side; shake the pan from time to time to brown evenly. Then flip them to the other side and brown them. It usually takes about 5 minutes on each side to cook slices of raw potatoes; precooked potatoes just need a quick browning in high heat. Whatever you do, taste the potatoes and adjust the heat as necessary. Add the seasoning at the end of cooking to release the new flavors and mix them with the potatoes. Serve immediately.