Denver Chef Shares Mom’s Favorite Recipes – 5280

Mom’s cooking is a source of inspiration for many Denver chefs. In fact, many incorporate classic dishes they grew up eating into their menus. In honor of Mother’s Day, we asked five of Denver’s chef girlfriends to share recipes they learned from their mothers. From chilled green beans with a touch of sugar and soy to homemade lasagna with pork ragu, here are some signature dishes from the chef’s family cookbook.

Jeff Osaka: Bessie’s Chilled Sesame Green Beans

“Other than my mother, there are no romantic stories about me sitting in the kitchen cooking,” says chef Jeff Osaka, owner of Osaka Ramen. But he was always interested in what her mother, Bessie, was doing in the kitchen, whether it was deboning a chicken or making chilled sesame beans as a side dish for a family of seven.

Bessie was an excellent cook and worked at her father’s Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles during high school. Her family was Japanese, but due to racism and prejudice against Japanese Americans after World War II, her restaurant cooked Chinese food. This Fairfax District restaurant was frequented by celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin.

Bessie, who passed away a few years ago, had a huge influence on Osaka’s career and cooking style, and these chilled green beans are a staple at Osaka Ramen. “It’s a simple dish, but the flavor is complex,” Osaka says.

Serves 4 to 6 people
Time: 20 minutes

1/8 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound blanched green beans
1/4 cup black and white sesame seeds
Kosher salt (appropriate amount)

1. Combine soy sauce, sugar, and black pepper in a small pot. Bring the pot to a boil over medium heat and cook everything until the sugar is completely dissolved. Strain, cool, and refrigerate.
2. Using a large mortar and pestle, crush the sesame seeds until they are mostly broken down. Add the cold green beans and amanatto, and add a pinch of salt to taste.
3. Mix all the ingredients so that the ground sesame seeds and amanatto are well coated with the beans.
4. Transfer to a bowl and enjoy.

Kenneth Wang: Mama Wang’s Crab Cheese Rangoon

Chef Kenneth Wang’s biggest culinary inspiration is his mother, and he grew up watching her two styles of cooking. She created American-style Chinese dishes such as beef and broccoli and chicken lo mein for her restaurant, New China Garden, in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. But the Hong Kong-born matriarch also cooked more traditional Chinese dishes at home. “I had the luxury of seeing two different sides of her of the same coin,” Wang says.

One of her famous dishes, crab cheese rangoon, is loaded with crab cakes, cream cheese, and sugar, so it’s sweet rather than salty. She also changed the way Rangoon was folded. A typical rendition is done with the wrapper’s four ends meeting in the middle. “Recently, I asked her, ‘Why do you fold it like this?’ and she said, ‘Well, it looks like a crab claw.'”

Mr. Wang will put his family’s rangoon on the menu at McFam on Broadway, serving it with a duck sauce made of plum and apple sauce, vinegar and sugar instead of the popular accompaniment, sweet and sour sauce.

Harvest amount is 40 pieces
Cooking time: 3 hours (2 hours in the fridge, about 1 hour to fold and fry)

1 pound cream cheese
1 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 pound imitation crab meat (you can use real crab, but be sure to drain all the liquid)
1 pack of square wonton wrappers (MAKfam prefers Hong Kong style yellow wrappers)
2 cups canola or vegetable oil

1. To make the filling, mix cream cheese, sugar, and crabmeat and refrigerate for 2 hours until firm.
2. Fold the wonton, take about 1 tablespoon of the crab and cheese mixture and place it in the center of the square wrapper. Dip your finger into a small bowl and wet the sides of the wrapper (water will be used to create a seal). Fold the square wonton wrapper in half to create a triangle shape. Press down to ensure all edges are sealed. This prevents the filling from spilling out when frying. With the shape of a pyramid, wet the two bottom corners of the wrapping paper (do not wet the tips or top of the triangle). Fold the wet corner up so it doesn’t touch the main body of the triangle. It will look like a small crab.
6. Heat 2 cups of canola or vegetable oil to 350°F and fry the rangoons in batches for about 2 minutes.
7. Remove and serve with your favorite dipping sauce.

Saura Klein: Martha’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Thora Klein, pastry chef at Local Jones in Cherry Creek, also has a popular dessert blog where she shares recipes for her favorite sweet treats, from corn and strawberry sugar cookies to citrus shortcake. But this pumpkin and chocolate chip cookie recipe is one that reminds me of her mother, Martha, every time I make it. “I don’t know where her mother got the recipe, but she remembers making it with her mother every fall,” Klein says. “It’s still one of my favorite cookies for spring. It’s kind of a cross between a cake and a cookie, with a little bit of spice and lots of chocolate chips.”

You will get about 30 cookies
Time: 35 minutes

4 cups flour
2 cups oats
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups butter
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 16 oz can of pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Let’s set it aside.
3. Mix sugar and brown sugar. Let’s set it aside.
4. Cream the butter in a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the sugar mixture little by little and mix until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix everything together.
5. Add dry ingredients and pumpkin alternately, mixing well after each addition. Add chocolate chips and mix.
6. Using a 1.5-ounce scoop, drop cookies onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake each batch for 20-25 minutes or until firm and lightly browned.

Andrea Frizzi: Maria Pia’s Lasagna

Every Wednesday at Andrea Frizzi’s family-run salumeria in Milan, Italy, regulars line up for Maria Pia’s famous pork ragu lasagna. The chef continues the tradition here in Denver, selling “The Best Lasagna Ever” at his Vero inside the Denver Central Market in RiNo. Fritzi says this dish is something she eats every day, and it’s an honor to be able to showcase her late mother’s talent with this recipe. Because she’s the best cook he’s ever met.

For 4 people
Time: 50 minutes

For pork ragu:
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
10 oz ground pork
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup milk
1 pound San Marzano tomato puree
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper taste

For lasagna:
Pasta de Cecco lasagna sheets 12 sheets
2 cups pork ragu
1 1/2 cups bechamela (Italian style) béchamel sauce)
1 1/2 cups Parmesan

For Raghu:
1. In a 5-quart saucepan over medium heat, add the onions and saute until golden brown.
2. Add ground pork and season with salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until heated through.
3. Add white wine and mix well until alcohol evaporates.
4. Add milk and boil over medium heat for 10 minutes.
5. Add San Marzano tomato puree and water, and season with salt and pepper.
6. Simmer the ragu over medium-low heat for 45 minutes and season with salt and pepper.

For lasagna:
1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Boil lasagna sheets in boiling salted water for 8 minutes, then place in ice water. Remove the pasta sheet from the water and place it on a towel. Let both sides of the sheet dry.
3. Coat the bottom of an 8-by-8-inch baking pan. Place 4 sheets of pasta on the bottom.
4. Mix the ragu and bechamela until evenly colored. Place one third of the bechamela and pork ragout mixture on a lasagna sheet and sprinkle with Parmesan.
5. Repeat twice, then top with remaining besiamella ragu mixture and sprinkle with remaining grated parmesan.
6. Bake the bread in the oven for 12 minutes.
9. Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool before serving. To reheat, remove the lasagna from the refrigerator, let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes, then place it in a preheated 450°F oven for 15 minutes.

Zach Martinucci: Nonna Gloria G’s Sourdough

Rebel Bread owner Zach Martinucci first created Nonna G’s Sourdough Bread as a way to honor and remember the family patriarch who passed away in 2017. He loves that his home kitchen smells just like hers when he bakes her bread. This sourdough features many of the same ingredients she uses to make her pork roast on Sunday, including roasted garlic, fresh sage, rosemary, and even extra-virgin olive oil.

Find Rebel Bread recipes here or sign up for a sourdough class at the bakery.