An Ode to Summer

I love the crisp Fall air and the beautiful leaves.  It's all so pretty but I so miss the long days of Summer when I leave work and there is still plenty of daylight.  In order to prolong the summer, I bought tomatoes, leeks and other produce at the farmer's market.  I also bought something unusual and special, duck eggs.

A couple weeks ago, the lovely man behind the counter of Eat This Yum! (they have delicious jams and baked goods) at the farmer's market told me that duck eggs make fluffier and brighter cakes. I then walked over to the farmer across the room, and there in the refrigerator were small cartons of duck eggs!  I had to buy them.  After buying the duck eggs, I told my Mom about them and she reminded me that they would be perfect for Salted Eggs (used in many Chinese dishes).  So yesterday, I bought more duck eggs.

For now, I wanted to make something that will celebrate summer and use the duck eggs.

These are Indian Runner duck eggs. They look beautiful to me. I looked through my many cookbooks and the recipe that kept calling out to me was the Clafoutis.  Ever since I read "My Life in France" about Julia Child, I've been fascinated with her so I decided to use her recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a classic.

I got some plums and following her recipe, I macerated the sliced plums in Cointreau and sugar.  Although I can't even pronounce Cointreau, it sure smelled great with the plums!  When I cracked the duck eggs, I saw that they were larger than the average large chicken egg.  The recipe called for three large eggs so I cracked two duck eggs and used one chicken egg.

Above, the two larger yolks are from the duck eggs and the smaller one is from the large chicken egg.  Well, I don't know if it's the eggs or just the recipe, the clafoutis tasted creamy and moist. I will try it with just chicken eggs next time and compare. For today, it's sweet, slightly tart from the plums and just plain comforting.