Quick and Easy: Pacific Berry Beef with Sesame Noodles and Spinach

Knight Ridder News Service

Use strawberries and soy sauce to make a dressing for steak. (Or, if pressed for time, just add pureed strawberries to bottled teriyaki sauce.)

• 1/2 pound beef tenderloin, flank, strip, sirloin or skirt steak
• 2 medium garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 pound ripe strawberries
• 2 tablespoons low-salt soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 pound dried Chinese noodles or 1/8 pound fresh steamed Chinese noodles
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 packed cups washed fresh spinach
• 1 cup drained, sliced water chestnuts
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Remove fat from beef. Mix crushed garlic with 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper. Press pepper mixture into meat on both sides.

Saute steak over medium-high heat (2 minutes per side for 1/4-inch thick piece, 3 minutes per side for 1/2-inch thick). Remove. Cut into 1/4-inch slices.

Set aside 2 strawberries and puree the rest. Mix with soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and ginger.

Add noodles to boiling water and cook 1 minute for fresh noodles, 3 minutes for dried. Drain. Tear spinach into small pieces and add to noodles with water chestnuts and sesame oil. Toss, add salt and pepper. Arrange meat atop noodles on plates; spoon on dressing. Cut strawberries into small cubes and sprinkle over top. Makes 2 servings, 653 calories each.