Anglo-Indian Bison Burgers

I have a hard time ignoring the siren song of the Eastern Sierra Mountains in California. They are my happy place. Nothing makes me happier than the Eastern Sierra, well except maybe a marvelous Bison Burger. Usually, I try to spend as much time as possible each summer and early fall frolicking amongst the alpine splendor of Mono and Inyo Counties. This year with our eight-week road trip across North America and Canada I had to ignore my one true love, that which led the wilderness naturalist John Muir to express, The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

I feel like I don’t have a care in the world as I trek up to 12,000-foot mountain passes in the Eastern Sierra. Well, except for what to create for dinner, of course. My calves might ache after three days straight of hiking ten miles every day on alpine mountain trails but there is peace and happiness in my heart. Oh God, I sound like a damn hippie. I’m the furthest from a bohemian flower child that you could get. As much as I do love me some tofu sometimes, I also could always go for a juicy Bison Burger after a butt-busting hike. This bad hombre just loves the mountains with a wanderlust-laced passion that can’t be contained. (Well sometimes it is by those time-constraining activities like earning a decent living.) But when I’m not working seven days a week in southern California as Big Bear Lake’s premier hiking guide you can find me exploring my way up rugged mountain trails like the one to the top of Bishop’s Pass. And dreaming up ways to invent a new delicious protein burger. The keto-conscientious hiker in me is a big fan of those lettuce-wrapped burgers.

Before we sweated our way up the Bishop Pass, on our way to Bishop along Highway 395 we were starving and pulled into a Carl’s Jr at ten a.m.Mainly my boyfriend needed a breakfast burrito and I was dying to try the El Diablo Burger, protein style of course. Okay, it’s not keto as it’s jammed full of arterie-clogging jalapeno poppers but damn is that El Diable Burger good! I think it’s a limited-time summer item so by the time I post this blog The El Diablo Burger will be long gone along with the long hot summer days but it definitely got me craving a big delicious juicy burger concoction. These Bison Burgers so deliver on that!

Tatanka, It’s what’s for dinner

It was the very end of our Eastern Sierras vacation and we were running out of meals for dinner in the motorhome back at camp. After a long day out on the trails, what on earth would we make for dinner? I’m kind of crazy about bison in every form, whether it’s sirloin steaks, ribeyes or the easier to find in most supermarkets, ground bison. The first time I made these delicious Anglo-Indian-inspired Bison Burgers, yes I was grasping at straws and trying to use up the last little ingredients in the motorhome fridge before we headed home. Wow, did I come up with one hell of a tasty burger? Gourmet burgers are all the rage at every thirty-dollar burger joint from Nashville to Las Vegas but I’ve never seen a Punjab or Bengali-inspired burger. If you have any ground bison meat in your freezer at home, you simply must try these. They are great in the air fryer as well!

Anglo-Indian Bison Burgers

1 pound bison

1 teaspoon garam masala

2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly grated garlic

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

Firstly combine the garama masala, salt, garlic, ginger and Worcestershire Sauce. Mix in the Bison Burger meat and form into tight patties. Freeze for an hour before grilling on your barbeque.

Serve these delicious burgers squished between some homemade naan bread. Try this recipe, the best easily home-cooked naan ever! Or you could serve these wrapped in some romaine lettuce leaves protein style. Add a dollop of goat chees and a drizzle of both Mint Chutney and a smear of homemade Plum and Ginger Chutney