Elk hamburger with collard and Yukon potato

This is elk burger that friends gave me that they shot with their own two bare hands and  a gun.

 It's exceedingly lean, so I added olive oil. To prevent drying out I also added water. Oil to carry flavor, water to prevent drying. But I also wanted to load it up with vegetables and make like fried meat loaf. In the last minute I decided on adding a Yukon potato, on a whim, and that turned the whole mixture into something close to corned beef hash, except with elk and not corned beef.

 The potato was microwaved separately, diced, then added to the sauté pan with the other vegetables. I also added Jimmy Dean sausage™ because it seemed like a good idea. + bread crumbs, + a couple of eggs, + collard green leaves, +onion and celery, all cooked through before adding to the mixture.  + Worcestershire sauce + soy sauce +garlic powder, and WHAM! , man oh man, is this ever good. Crunchy on the outside and yet delicate inside. I sprinkled the tomato with olive oil and both patty and tomato with sea salt.

My father would not have approved of this. He objected to adulterating meat. He believed adding bread crumbs was a way people stretched it, which he considered dishonest, and was unacceptable. He demanded 100% meat. Thus, my mother's meat loaves were, how do I say?, a bit dry and crumbly. The oil leaked out into a puddle. I disagree with that anti-meat-adulteration stance. This is much lighter than a steak, it doesn't weigh you down after eating it. I recommend adding vegetables into ground meat. It helps keep the whole thing tender, moist, and light without sacrificing any flavor. Plus, it's a great way to sneak in vegetables. Collard greens? Honestly, who would ever think of that? Me. That's who.

Look at it this way. It's like eating a ground up bun, and a salad, and a meat patty, all at once. Brilliant!

Nom nom nom slurp nom nom smack nom nom nom. There's a lot more of this mixture still left. I can make MOAR!