Tri-Tip Sauteed with Tomatoes and Mushrooms

When I was growing up, my mom would, every so often, take very thinly-sliced steak, sauté it up with tomatoes, and serve it over a bed of watercress. It was delicious, especially with the crisp bite of the watercress.

I used to love watercress. Until last week, when I found a disgusting critter in the bunch that I had bought. Not a jumping or crawling critter, those I can handle. This bunch had a long, thin, wriggling, sucking, leeching critter about an inch long; it had suctioned itself to the side of my salad spinner and was squirming in the water. I kid you not. I threw everything right out and am never eating watercress again. (I also immediately ran the salad spinner in the dishwasher to sanitize it.)

Anyway... sorry for that unappetizing detour. I just had to get that off my chest. The rest of this post is in much better taste. I promise.

I love this dish when the steak is very thinly sliced.  But I'm not as skilled with a knife (nor am I as diligent) as my mom is, so don't sweat it if you can't get the steak paper-thin.  I just try to do the best I can.  And if I'm lazy pressed for time, a finished meal is more important than having perfectly-sliced meat.

Tonight I used tri-tip, but you can use any tender cut of beef like rib eye, sirloin, tenderloin, etc. 

Tri-Tip Sautéed with Tomatoes and Mushrooms

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 2 large handfuls of shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and thickly sliced
• 3 medium vine-ripened tomatoes, seeded and thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 pound tri-tip, all visible fat removed, thinly sliced
• fish sauce

Directions:

• Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a sauté pan.  Add the shiitakes and cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until they start to get soft and begin to brown.
• Add the tomatoes and sauté for a few more minutes until both the mushrooms and tomatoes are soft.
• Move the veggies to one side of the pan.  Add the garlic and sliced tri-tip to the empty side of the pan and stir for about 30 seconds.
• Toss the veggies and meat together.  Season with a few generous dashes of fish sauce.
• Stir for another minute or so until the meat is no longer red/pink.  Make sure not to over-cook.
• Serve over a green salad or brown rice.