An American in Provence

This Thanksgiving was my first time not celebrating Thanksgiving in the traditional American style. I kind of missed it. Instead, I had school. Once a month my school, private school in the center of Marseille where I take french courses a billion hours a week, has a lunch with traditional Provencal food. First one was wine and cheese, second was a stew, and this one was Rouille, or a fish broth soup. It just happened to fall on Thanksgiving.
For the Rouille, you take a piece of toasted french bread, rub it with garlic, then spread this Rouille paste on it. You place the bread in the fish broth, add grated Emmental cheese if you want, and eat. It was okay, pretty strong.
At karate last night, one of the ladies asked if I had celebrated Thanksgiving. I said No, not this year. Our kitchen is not properly equipped. It is really hard to do a turkey when all you have is two hot plates, a microwave, and a toaster oven. Perhaps next year, if we are not living in the same place. I guess a group of Americans (and their french spouses) are getting together today for a Thanksgiving meal. The french lady said she had tried the Tarte au Poitrions (pumpkin pie) and that she didn't like it. The french don't seem to like pumpkin pie. I think it is because they don't cook it right. They don't used the canned stuff for one. They also don't like cinammon, which means they are just plain crazy.
Here are the instructions for Rouille.

1 1/2 cups diced French bread, white part only
1/2 cup fish broth (reserve some from the making of bouillabaisses)
4 to 6 garlic cloves, to your taste, peeled
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground red chili pepper
Pinch of saffron threads, crumbled
1 large egg yolk

Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 1/4 cups extra virgin olive oil
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
40 to 50 slices French baguette bread (about 1 loaf)

1. Soak the diced bread in the fish broth. Squeeze the broth out. Mash the garlic cloves in a mortar with the salt until mushy. Place the bread, mashed garlic (saving 1 garlic clove for the croutes), red pepper, saffron, egg yolk and black pepper in a food processor and blend for 30 seconds then pour in 1 cup olive oil through the feed tube in a slow, thin, steady stream while the machine is running. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving. Store whatever you don't use in the refrigerator for up to a week.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the croutes. In a large skillet, melt the butter with the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil over medium heat with the remaining crushed garlic until it begins to turn light brown. Remove and discard the garlic.
3. Lightly brush both sides of each bread slice with the melted butter and oil and set aside. When all the slices are brushed place them back in the skillet and cook until they are a very light brown on both sides. Set aside until needed.
Variation: Another way to make the croutes is to toast them first and then rub both sides with a cut piece of garlic.
Note: If the rouille is separating, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of the fish broth and whisk it in until smooth and re-emulsified.

Makes 1 1/4 cups sauce rouille and 10 servings of croutes