cover image The Asparagus Cookbook

The Asparagus Cookbook

Stockton Asparagus Festival. Celestial Arts, $9.95 (148pp) ISBN 978-0-89087-487-5

Stockton, Calif., the asparagus capital of the world, is the site each April of an asparagus festival where aficionados can live out dreams of eating all they want. So it's not surprising that this compilation of more than 100 recipes from the festival should feature asparagus in guises other than steamed and doused with hollandaise sauce. From tip to tail, asparagus can be baked with parmesan cheese, combined in a variety of soups, tossed in salad with a hot bacon vinaigrette, mixed up in a shrimp-and-asparagus fettuccine or in a potato tart. It takes a leap of faith to try asparagus ice cream or asparagus-lime pie, but true love knows no bounds. As is common in such cookbooks, the recipes are generally easy to make, but the instructions can be idiosyncratic, as in ""a cube of butter.'' Experienced cooks should have no difficulties, however, and, as every addict knows, stalking the asparagus is its own reward. (August)