Ricotta hotcakes with blueberry-star anise compote and mascarpone cream

This recipe is a reverse engineering exercise. Whenever I go home to Adelaide, my mum and I go for brunch at Urban Bistro on Fullarton Road. Bizarrely but appropriately, Urban is in the ground floor of an apartment block that used to be the maternity hospital where I was born (along with my sisters, and most other Adelaide children of my generation) – the Queen Victoria Hospital. IMHO, Urban serves the best brunch in Adelaide, which in a city very well supplied with delectable brunch options is saying something. Also IMHO, the ricotta pancakes with blueberry compote and rich cream are the highlight of their menu, though the stir-fried blue swimmer crab omelette comes a very close second. Much as I love Edinburgh, its cafes haven’t quite cottoned on to the brunch concept yet, and although you can get some very nice full Scottish breakfasts, and even a decent eggs Florentine or scrambled with smoked salmon, you won’t get anything to match the menus at Urban, East Terrace Continental, or The Big Table at Adelaide Central Market. Hence I tend to make it myself!

Since I first worked out how to make this, Urban has added the authentic recipe to its online collection – I’m not sure whether to be glad to be able to compare, or infuriated at all the reverse engineering work I put in! Regardless, I’m smug enough to think it’s still worth putting my version online (less sugar, more spice, and the addition of mascarpone). I can’t take credit for the hotcakes (nor can Urban) – Bill Granger’s are the best, and I’m not going to pretend I can do better. Unless your guests are especially greedy in the dairy department, you’ll wind up with a bit more mascarpone cream than you need, but I’ve suggested these quantities because they’re how mascarpone and cream are generally sold in the UK. If you prefer, reduce the quantities by about a third, keeping the proportions about the same.