Umami Bites: Get Down with Better than Sex Cake, Find Out Why Great Flour Matters, and Do a Little Good with our Super Bowl Party

One of the best things about cooking is how small changes in ingredients and technique can make the difference between a dish that’s sublime and one that’s destined for the pup. Over the years I’ve tried lots of things, but one thing I’ve never tried in all my efforts to become a better baker is to start my own flour milling company.

In Sunrise Flour Mill’s Search for Better Flour, we learn how Darrel Glanville’s quest to become a better baker led he and his wife Marty to start Sunrise Flour Mill.  With a focus on producing stone ground heritage flours, Sunrise is trying to introduce people to what flour used to be. They also were nice enough to share their Sourdough Bread Recipe with us.

Better than Sex Cake is one of those sly little chocolate desserts full of caramel and whip cream.  Sticky and sweet it’s one damn fine cake, but whether or not it lives up to its name is for you to decide and for your sake, we’re hoping it doesn’t.

A challenge with great rice dishes is making sure the rice lives up to the rest of the dish. So often it feels like the rice is just filler, which is why our Killer White Rice recipe uses chicken stock, butter, and a bay leaf to create delicious rice that complements whatever else you’re serving.

Speaking of delicious rice dishes, Thai Beef with Herbs gets its bright flavors from a combination of sweet chili and fish sauces along with fresh herbs and a squeeze of lime juice.

I’m not completely sure why, but it seems like a lot of people are finding solace in comfort food these days.  Our favorite had a really bad day dish is Mexican Chicken, it’s creamy cheesy deliciousness at its best. Make a pan and the world’s problems will melt away.

This year we did something new for our Super Bowl party and asked guests to donate food and money to our local food shelf.  In How to Do Some Good with Your Super Bowl Party you can read about the idea behind this and the impact we could have if everyone used their Super Bowl parties to have fun and fight hunger.

To finish up we have a quick little Greyhound Cocktail recipe and some Baked Olives.  Baking the olives elevate a simple dish by giving them a buttery texture and mellow flavor.

During the past few weeks, we’ve been upgrading Umami, adding some new tools to make it easier to find your way around and adding the ability for people to leave comments on recipes and articles.  Please check out the changes and let us know what you think. We love to hear people’s feedback, especially when they’re being nice;}

Looking ahead we’ve got some interesting cocktail recipes, an amazing smoked duck, and a few things you might not know about coffee

Thanks as always for reading Umami.

Umami Bites is our somewhat regular newsletter that we try and send out every couple of weeks with all sorts of tasty recipes and interesting stories.  You can check out past issues here and sign up for future issues below.

Mark Hinds

A passionate writer, overly curious cook, and Umami's founder. Mark can often be found cooking for friends.