Sarah’s Rap: As promised in my previous post, “Where’s the Beef?” I’m sharing my first recipe from my recent exploration of cooking with non-traditional meats. I found that it has a similar taste to beef, but much leaner. It’s a good thing the meat is so lean, considering the luxurious toppings I paired it with. 🙂 They complemented each other perfectly!

Elk Burger Extraordinaire

• 1 pound ground elk meat
• 1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 4 slices bacon
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 pound white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 medium red onion, sliced
• 3 Tablespoon olive oil
• arugula or mixed greens
• Paleo mayonnaise, homemade (and prepared earlier) or store-bought
• pinch each of salt and pepper for eggs

Burgers: Preheat a grill to medium heat, about 350. Form ground elk into 4 patties and brush both sides with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, distributing evenly. Put patties on preheated grill, cooking 6-7 minutes on each side until cooked medium-well (slight pink in center is okay), or until you like it.

While grilling, prepare toppings below. Once burgers are done, remove them from the grill and cover with foil until the rest is finished if needed.

Bacon and Egg: Fry bacon slices in a large frying pan over low heat until desired crispness level is met, flipping as needed. Set on paper-towel once done. After removing bacon from pan, crack eggs into hot, greasy pan, sprinkle with pinch of salt and black pepper. Cook until whites are fully cooked, approximately 2 minutes. If prefer a cooked yolk, flip egg carefully and remove from heat. Add bacon back to warm pan and cover until ready for them. (Note: If you want a runny yolk, timing is more critical for you. Don’t fry egg until everything else is ready and go to assembly rather than cover and wait. Personally I prefer over-easy, flipping briefly but not cooking yolk through.)

Mushrooms and Onion: While bacon cooks, preheat another frying pan over medium-high heat, preferably cast iron. Add olive oil and spread around pan. Add onions and mushrooms to hot pan and cook for 3 minutes or until slightly browned but not fully tender, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook until tender, approximately 5-7 minutes, continuing to occasionally flip/stir. (Note, I prefer my sauteed onions and mushrooms to be slightly browned, which is why I start at a higher heat and tend to stir less. You can also cook on low for 10 minutes if you prefer them to not be as browned.) Remove from heat.

Assembly: Put a handful of arugula or mixed greens on a plate. Center a grilled elk patty in the middle. Spread Paleo mayonnaise on top of the burger. Cut a slice of bacon in half and put on top of mayonnaise. Scoop 1/4 of the mushrooms and onions on top of the bacon. Put an egg on the very top, being careful not to break the yolk if still runny.

Now step back and enjoy the beauty. Don’t wait too long though, you want to eat this baby warm. Grab a knife and fork and pair with your favorite sides. You can also skip the sides and just eat this burger “as is”. It’s a meal unto itself! I did pair mine with some nicely browned roasted butternut squash with diced shallots. Yum!

Whew, now that was a bit of work to coordinate, so the next meal I’m going super-easy! Stay tuned for tomorrow’s easy Bison Stir-fry recipe!

Enjoy!

Sarah