I am happy to be back with Around the World in 12 Dishes post from last month when we travelled to Egypt! Around the World in 12 Dishes : season 2 was originally created by Glittering Muffins and there are total of 13 blogs participating in this project. The idea is to “visit” 1 country a month (12 countries in a year) by exploring the cooking culture and craft. We all cook 1 (or more) dish with our children and some of us make crafts.

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This month we are travelling to the grasslands of New Zealand! I have few friends residing there and they love that small but beautiful country. And what is more exciting – I am on time with posting the recipe! Yay!

As usually, I’ve been scratching my head as to what from New Zealand cuisine I can adapt to my picky eaters. And… I found something that both of my girls absolutely LOVE – Pikelets (follow the link to see the original recipe from Food.Com), or in other words, mini-pancakes. The recipe is exactly the one I’ve been using for so many years, though I add a bit of vegetable oil into the recipe instead of butter and I don’t use anything else to fry on (just a non-stick frying pan).

To make sure the ingredients mix well and the batter is smooth I use my blender.

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And to improvise I fried the pikelets in different shapes.

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My little one was such a goof – she was so happy to try the pancakes/pikelets.

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Since we had the pikelets for dinner, I replaced the usual drink to go with it – tea – with pear compote (as you can see in the first picture). It is very very simple to make.

Pear and/or Apple Compote

You will need:

3-4 pears

Medium size pot

Sugar to taste

(depends whether you like it sweeter or less sweet)

Water

How to make it:

Wash the pears/apple, cut in pieces, take the middle out. Place in enough water to cover them and add sugar. Put the pot on fire. Once it start boiling, lower the fire and simmer for about 30-40 minutes. It is ready to serve! We like to drink it cool but warm pear compote apparently helps with cough (as per our Chinese paediatrician and yes, it helped my little ones!) as well as cooked/steamed pears.

You know, I really enjoy participating in this project as it gives me an opportunity to reassure myself once again that the world is but one country – nearly every cuisine I tried so far has something that I can relate to. Isn’t it just amazing?

Check the other blogs of “Around the World in 12 Dishes” for their New Zealand creations:

Adventures In Mommydom, Afterschooling for Smarty Pants, All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share,Creative World of Varya, Glittering Muffins, Here Come The Girls, Kid World Citizen, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Maroc Mama, Mermaids’ Makings, The Educators’ Spin On It

Please link up your New Zealand dish and/or craft in our linky below, we would love to see it!