Spring often puts me in the mood to post some asparagus recipes, so today we're getting them from The Unabridged Vegetable Cookbook (Nika Hazelton, copyright 1976, but mine is from the 1980 Bantam printing). The book really thinks you should serve asparagus and eggs as a main dish, as the Asparagus Milanaise suggests.
Asparagus, butter-fried eggs, and plenty of dairy fat in the forms of browned butter and cheese? Sounds pretty good, although giving a full half-pound of asparagus to each diner might be a little over-generous. At least, it might seem that way until you see the recipe for Flemish Asparagus, supposedly a good luncheon main dish.
The four servings means that each diner is supposed to ingest a full pound of asparagus AND a quarter-cup of butter... (Never mind the weird serving instructions. Just fold up all the asparagus in a napkin and...? Who even has a napkin big enough to encase four pounds of asparagus? Is serving food out of a napkin supposed to be fancy?)
So, celebrate spring by eating a half-to-full pound of asparagus! Or don't! You might feel better if you just polished off that last Reese's peanut butter egg instead.
The author must have had asparagus in quantities that most people have zucchinis in the summer. At least she didn't get creative with asparagus bread, asparagus cake, or asparagus pie. Although an asparagus quiche would be nice, but hard to pull off with 2 eggs and 4 lbs of asparagus.
ReplyDeleteI do have an asparagus cake recipe! It's just not in this cookbook. https://granniepantries.blogspot.com/2020/01/calico-craziness.html
DeleteI had a horrible feeling that at least one of those ideas would be a recipe you found at some point.
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