Sausages with Leeks Au Gratin and Meat Stock

The end to another weekend, I hate that!  Oh well, I have been meaning to cook this recipe since last Sunday so I thought it was about time to finally get it done.  The first step in this recipe is to create a portion of meat stock.  This, although a very easy process, takes 3.5 hours, a pretty decent chunk of Sunday. 

Upon returning from the store to buy the necessary ingredients, I cubed veal and beef and put it in a stew pot, covering the meat up with water.  Once it boiled and I, as directed by The Silver Spoon, skimmed the top for scum.  And boy howdy was there a lot of whatever meat scum is.  After de-scumming the stock I added onions, celery and a shallot and left it alone for  3 hours.

Around the three hour mark, I started cleaning leeks.  Leeks are a very dirty vegetable and are a challenge to clean.  Every TV chef tells you a different technique; here's the way that seems to be the most successful for me.  I cut the ends off the leeks and trim the tops.  Then I cut them in half the long way and pull the layers apart.  I, then, put them into a colander and rinse them until the water runs clean.

Once I had managed to clean the leeks, I turned my attention to the sausages.  I sautéed them in a pan with olive oil.  While they were browning, I separated the liquid of the meat stock from its ingredients and added the stock to a new pan with the cleaned leeks.  I boiled the leeks in the stock for 15 minutes and then drained them and added them to a buttered dish.  I saved the stock for another day because all I did was boil a vegetable in it.  Am I wrong?

Anyway,  I popped the sausages on top and poured 2/3 cup of cream to finish it off.   Once this creamy buttery casserole was built all it needed was about 15 minutes in the oven to bubble up and brown.   The leeks were peppery and the cream sauce rich.  My fiance even ate some after eating duck at his parents so it must have been pretty good.

According to my tabulations I have made 22 Silver Spoon recipes so far, used 3 quarts of heavy cream and 4 pound of butter.  Yikes, that is a lot of animal fat.  This week, I will take on ribs and pork chops and spinach with more butter and cream.  Pray for my waistband!