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Bucketlist Bri

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French Potato Pancake — “Crique” Recipe

Last Updated: October 20, 2021 · Recipes

Having a French boyfriend certainly does has it’s perks -aka- I have full access to secret French family recipes (well, there not really that secret), which is why I am making a series of “The Best of Ardèche, France:…” recipes.  And first recette on the list is…..Crique!

When I lived in France, Paul and I would often return to his parent’s home in the countryside of Ardèche; a department located in the Southeastern (some say South-central) part of France, as can be seen highlighted in red on this handy dandy map.

There in his small town in Ardèche, his parent’s would cook up traditional, authentic French food so I could discover the food culture within a traditional French family setting.  One of the recipes we made that would forever stick in my brain is “crique”, which is the simplest yet most delicious meal to make (especially when served with une bonne salade verte).

La recette crique ardechoise is basically a grated potato pancake mixed with eggs, oil, salt & pepper. But you can add other ingredients such as onions, garlic, cheese, etc., if you want to diversify your crique.

Table of Contents show
Crique Recipe
Fire up the stove
Homemade salad dressing

Crique Recipe

*Recipe from the family Faure. 🙂

♦ Preparation time: 15 minutes  |  Cooking time: 10-15 minutes

⇒ The amount of potatoes you need depends on how many people you want to feed (4-5 people = 4-5 large potatoes)

  • Peel raw potatoes and rinse them with water
  • Grate* them (smaller the better) into a large bowl

*We always grate the potatoes manually; it takes some elbow grease but the end result is worth the effort!

⇒ Add an [almost] equivalent amount of eggs (3-4 eggs for 4-5 people)

  • Add eggs into the potato mixture and beat/stir well

⇒ Salt & pepper to taste

  • You can add additional salt once the crique has been cooked (it’s my guilty little pleasure).

Fire up the stove

⇒ Turn the stove on medium-high to high heat.

⇒ Add oil (olive or sunflower) and let it get hot

⇒ Once oil is hot, add your first crique

⇒ Evenly cover the pan’s surface with 1/2 inch thick of crique mixture

⇒ Let cook for 10-15 minutes, flipping* when one side is golden brown

*Flipping a large, round potato “pancake” can be quite tricky.  Paul and his family always use the help of a large plate or a pan’s lid by covering the crique with the plate or lid and then flipping the pan upside down.  Once flipped, slide the crique back into the pan to finish cooking.

Your crique should be evenly golden/brown all over – crispy on the outside, soft in the center is my personal favorite 🙂 Cut the crique into 4 or 5 sections and serve alongside a crispy, green salad (see below for an awesome homemade dressing – the French way!)

Homemade salad dressing

Follow these short steps for a super easy and simple way to make a delicious homemade salad dressing and dine as the French do.

  • Grab your salad and wash it thoroughly by rinsing with clean water or if it’s salad fresh from your garden, soak in a bowl of water and vinegar
  • Grab a small/regular-sized bowl for the dressing

In this order you:

  • Add 1 tbl spoon of dijon mustard to the bowl
  • Stir in 1 tbl spoon of red vinegar (balsamic, if you prefer)
  • Mix the above two ingredients together very well
  • Quickly stir in 1 tbl spoon of oil (again, olive or sunflower is fine) until the mixture comes together smoothly
  • Continue to add oil (stirring quickly) in small increments to make the volume of the salad dressing increase
  • Taste as you go, adjust ingredient amounts as preferred
  • Salt and pepper for finishing touch

Congratulations! You have just learned the recipe for une crique ardechoise and a simple n’ yummy salad dressing!

By: Bri · In: Recipes

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  1. The Best of Ardèche, France: “Marrons Glacés” (Candied Chestnuts) – Bits of Bri says:
    February 6, 2016 at 2:11 am

    […] the crique recipe I posted a while back? Well, prepare your kitchen utensils because I have another amazing recipe […]

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I’m Bri, an adventurous digital nomad living abroad full-time since 2015. It is my hope to inspire you to live a life of adventure, seek out meaningful experiences, and travel slowly and mindfully!

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Traveling solo in Nepal has awakened in me a confi Traveling solo in Nepal has awakened in me a confidence & sense of self (at the risk of sounding cliché), of “my essence” and inner Knowing, and where my compassion and passions mingle and thrive. I was reading some of your comments on my recent Reel about solo travel and how I put myself at great risk/in danger. But as I was telling my Tibetan friend, Sonam, tonight (yes, the new one I made last week!), I inform my decisions mostly by 1. Asking myself, “Would this make a good story?” and 2. Listening to my body and emotions. Yes, it’s risky to travel solo, to be a female in a male-dominated culture, to go out after hours with people you just met, etc. But doing that — and all the magic that followed by “allowing” — reminded me exactly of who I am at my core: Curious and open to the world, willing to get uncomfortable for the sake of finding magic and serendipity. Some of you said, “I’m too scared to do this, how do you overcome that fear of personal safety?” And to this I say, I don’t! Fear accompanies me along the journey. Living life is one big risk. It’s uncomfortable to be open, vulnerable, and unsure. But once you accept that and once you begin to let compassion and curiosity guide you rather than your fear, the real magic starts to happen in all areas of life, not just travel. I find these moments most in travel though, when I’m confronted with contrast and am left vulnerable to the world and the kindness of my fellow humans. My Reels are not meant to romanticize or gloss over very real risks/threats in life, but rather to share a real account of what’s possible (adventure, connections, love, etc) when you worry less about societal norms and what’s “safe not safe” “right not right” and allow your over-active fears to take a backseat. 
This is your reminder to trust your inner compass to guide you in writing your epic life story. ✨✨

To sum it up: 

1. Choose a life of adventure 
2. Stay curious
3. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable (otherwise said, seek discomfort)
4. Let love and light flow in and out 
5. Change is the only constant 

#solotravel #nepaltravel #solofemaletraveler #soloadventure #localtravel #trekkingnepal #adventurethatislife
The strength of women 💛 These ladies were lau The strength of women 💛 

These ladies were laughing so sweetly while filling up their water jugs at the Manga Hiti fountain in Patan. I watched them for a while and then plucked up the courage to ask if I could take their photos, which only made them giggle more. 

I've always felt that not being able to communicate in the same language makes for even more interesting encounters. Without words, we have to touch each other's humanity with eyes and gestures, and most of the time it leads to unspoken mutual understanding, acceptance, and love. We three walked away with the biggest smiles on our faces. I yelled out "Dhayabad!" (Thank you!) as they hoisted their jugs up the stairs, laughing all the way. I won't forget this shared moment between us 🙏 

Check stories for the landscape orientation for some of these photos ✨ 

#nepal #nepalnow #nepalphotography #nepaliculture #nepalisbeautiful #natgeoyourshot #patan #kathmanduvalley #lifetimeexperiences #photonepal #nepaltravel
Did you feel it? Nepal’s ancient wisdom, its swi Did you feel it? Nepal’s ancient wisdom, its swirling spirituality, its raw humanity? ✨🇳🇵❤️

#nepal #visitnepal #nepalnow #travelstories #localtravel #mindfultravel #slowtravel #natgeotravel
When you say “yes” as a solo traveler and stay When you say “yes” as a solo traveler and stay open to the randomness of life and the kindness of strangers, really wonderful memories can be made. Thank you Lama family and my new Tibetan friends for such a fun and insightful sequence of experiences 🙏 💛

#solotravel #localtravel #nepaltravel #nepaldiaries #nepali #solofemaletravel #kathmandunepal #thamel #tibetanfood #solotraveldiaries
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In Nepal, particularly Kathmandu, everything around me swarms like a hive. I have nowhere else to go but inside myself. I've discovered through years of slow traveling (and solo travel) that peace awaits me there -- a sense of independence, power, and knowing that is still, comforting, and safe. And I can tap into it whenever I need to.

Chaos and peace reside in all of us, and Nepal has a cosmic, ancient way of reminding you of just that. 

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#nepaltravel #patan #durbarsquare #nepalphotography #slowtravel #nepal #solotravel #lalitpur
They ask, “Why?” I was 29 when I embarked on They ask, “Why?” 

I was 29 when I embarked on the plane on the 21st, and 30 when I disembarked on the 23rd. How fitting. I spent all of my 20s abroad (except for my two final semesters in undergrad), and moved to Nepal when I was 21. 

What better way to say goodbye to my twenties than by returning to the start? I felt the desperate urge to start my 30s this way—alone on a one-way ticket with no concrete plans. I have both feared and longed to come back all these years. You see, I had made a promise to one of my closest Nepali friends that I’d see her again, but the reality is that I no longer can. 

She, along with another dear friend, passed away from cancer a couple of years back. The thought of returning to my old life here without my friends made me, well, incredibly sad. I had thought that, upon landing in Kathmandu—or taking a bite of my first momo—after so long, I’d find myself bursting into tears of both grief and gratitude. But I didn’t. Instead, I found familiarity in the chaos and chaos in the strangeness. 

Just being here—and the decisions and actions it took to get here—has reminded me of the preciousness of this one very short life. And that, by choosing to celebrate mine—at the exciting turn of a decade no less—by coming back to Nepal on a solo trip that would force me into daring discomfort when I could instead retreat to the comforts of family or my partner, is how I want to live it.

Truth is, a couple of months ago the thought of Nepal felt out of reach. It felt risky, unattainable. But the idea itself pushed open, just a crack at first, a door that had been otherwise closed. I could have more easily ignored my “what if?” daydreams—calling them off as too hard, too uncomfortable, or too far-fetched to actually pursue—and kept it shut.
But sometime in mid-July, I decided to look at flights. And I found one (truly, just one) option that could work. And it just so happened that it would fall on my birthday, or rather bridge my birthday. The idea of getting on a plane at 29 and getting off it at 30—back in Nepal—sold me. I fell in love with the story, the adventure, the unknowingness of it all. 

So, yeah. That’s why. Or as I prefer, “Why not?”
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