Baked brown rice with mushrooms (p. 355) and Brazilian black beans (p. 256)

I wasn't optimistic about Baked brown rice with mushrooms (p. 355). I don't have good luck with rice (I blame the altitude, rice just doesn't seem to cook correctly) and I particularly don't like brown rice. I don't like the flavor of brown rice and I don't like the texture. On the bright side, I do like mushrooms, so that was the small piece of hope that the recipe could succeed for me.

I melted butter in my ovenproof pot and added mushrooms, onions, and a garlic clove:



When the mushrooms were lightly browned, I added long-grain brown rice and stirred until the rice was coated with butter:



I added chicken stock, salt, and pepper, brought it to a boil, transferred it to the oven, and baked it.



For some reason I don't have an "after" picture. Mushrooms and brown rice are a really good combination and homemade chicken stock rounded out the flavors well. Even so, I didn't really like the dish. I don't like the chewiness of brown rice and the "nutty" flavor. Do you guys like brown rice? I'm always disappointed when a dish comes with brown rice instead of white--white complements the flavor of a dish better whereas brown lends too much of it's own flavor (in my opinion).

I wanted to make a dish that would produce a lot of leftovers, so I wouldn't have to cook for a few days. Brazilian black beans (p. 256) seemed like a good choice. I soaked black beans overnight and drained them. Are black beans always more of a purple? I thought they were a really pretty color:




I started browning some fresh hot sausage when I re-read the recipe--apparently I wasn't supposed to use bulk sausage but, rather, link sausage.



This recipe was pretty complex with tons of ingredients and lots of steps resulting in this:





(I can give more information about the cooking process if anyone wants it)

I recommend using link sausage instead of bulk sausage. Because I added the sausage way too early in the cooking process, it turned black, which was a bit disturbing. I didn't really like the sweet flavor components in this dish (cardamom, orange juice, sherry), I thought they mixed really strangely with the hot components (hot sausage, red pepper flakes). Has anyone made this before? What did you think?

I'm really tired tonight so this post is getting the bum's rush. Don't forget to add me on Facebook and Twitter!