I love rösti, a traditional Swiss dish of fried grated potatoes, like a plate-sized, buttery hash brown.  But potatoes make D's tummy unhappy.  Cassava (manioc), however, loves him, and that love is mutual.  I like cassava, too.  So I decided to try making rösti out of it for breakfast this morning.  Result? Total, untrammeled success. The trick to the flavour of rösti is cooking it in butter.  If you can't do butter, maybe some other flavourful oil.  My first instinct would be to melt 2 tablespoonsful of creamed coconut in olive oil and cook the dish in that. I haven't tried it, but I suspect it'd work.

The slight mustiness of cassava was brilliant with the butter.  I also added cayenne pepper, fresh garlic and fresh basil.  It was a pretty tasty marriage of flavours.

Manioc Rösti Recipe

* 1 large cassava root, about 1kg / 2.2lbs in weight, peeled and parboiled
* 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter
* I loose handful chopped, fresh basil leaves
* 1 clove garlic, chopped fine
* salt and cayenne powder to taste

Remove the fibrous string that runs through the middle of the cassava root.  Coarsely grate the cassava and set aside.  In a non-stick frying pan, melt the butter.  Add the grated cassava, the basil, garlic, salt and cayenne.  Stir all ingredients together, stir-frying for 3-5 minutes.  With the flat of the spatula, press the mixture down into the pan to form a thick, flat cake.  Cook over medium heat without stirring until there is a golden crust on the bottom.  If you're brave or skilled enough, you can toss the cake into the air and flip it back into the pan upside down to cook it golden on the other side.  (I didn't even try.)  If you're not tossing it, place a plate big enough to cover the frying pan onto the pan, then flip the whole upside down so that the rösti falls onto the plate golden side up.  Serve immediately.  We had ours with spicy sausage on the side, as you can see.