Cooking with Colm O'Gorman: Smash burgers with crispy onion rings and chunky chips

This just might be the best burger you'll ever make

Today I am keeping it old-school and giving you a recipe for a wonderful cheeseburger that you can make from scratch. You can add extra toppings — some streaky bacon and pickled jalapeno peppers would be great, for example — but the basic burger recipe remains the same. The key to a good burger is great beef. I used minced Irish Angus steak, with a fat content of 15%. The flavour is in the fat, so do not go for a leaner mince. Many recipes will recommend that you use a 20% fat content mince, but I find that 15% packs plenty of flavour.

What makes a burger special is the lovely crust that you get when you take a ball of meat and press or smash it into a burger as soon as it hits a very hot pan. This is what creates a gorgeous crust and a juicy burger. There is nothing complicated about this, the ingredients for the burger are beef and seasoning, nothing more.