Bison Burger Sliders
Photo by: Lucy Alexander
I ate roasted lamb eyeballs. No I wasn’t on CNN’s Parts Unknown. I was in a Middle Eastern restaurant in Massachusetts with my twelve year old girlfriend and her dad. It was dark in the restaurant. Her dad ordered all the food in a language I did not understand. The smells of cinnamon, cumin, ginger, and cardamom were as new to me as the warm flat breads in the basket. The food smelled wonderful though and I wanted to try everything. With some instruction from my friend’s dad I dug in. The eyeballs were covered in sauce. I liked them, until I found out what I was eating. Delicious as they were I would never eat them again… knowingly.
There are a lot of tasty foods out there that many people find unappetizing for one reason or another. Venison was unappealing to many people because they could only picture Bambi. Boiled beef tongue was popular as sandwich meat when I was growing up. I never gave it a thought until I saw that huge tongue (there was no mistaking it) sitting on the cutting board in our kitchen.
This week’s recipe for bison sliders is not as unusual as roasted eyeballs and I can not understand why it isn’t more main stream. Everyone loves sliders because they are delicious and fun to eat. This version is healthier than the beef because bison has much less fat and calories than beef. According to the USDA, 3 ounces of bison meat contains 109 while 3 ounces of beef has 291 calories. Plus bison has much less fat but you wouldn’t know it when you take a bite. I promise. Eating less calories in the patties means you can enjoy a deliciously fattening (guilt free) bun for that bison patty.
Note: ometimes slider buns are hard to find. Instead of looking in the hamburger/ hotdog section of your local market, try the dinner roll section. You can use dinner rolls, potato rolls, even frozen dinner rolls work. This recipe makes about eight 2-oz. patties. The recipe can easily be doubled or halved.
Photo by: Lucy Alexander
1 ½ lb. ground bison
½ teaspoon dried marjoram
¼ cup dry red wine
3 garlic cloves minced
1 tablespoon mustard
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
slider buns (see note above)
For garnish: sliced tomatoes, red onions, avocados, and lettuce leaves
Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until combined. Shape into 2 ounces patties. Grill, or fry in a large frying pan over medium high heat 3 minutes per side. Serve with tomato slices, lettuce, pickled red onions or slices of red onion and avocado slices.
Photo by: Lucy Alexander