Asparagus tends to suffer from two things; over-cooking and stringy skin. Like most vegetables it's at its best when lightly cooked and boiling it, even by standing it upright, is not the way to go.
The first thing to do is to snap off - not cut - the bit at the stalk end which tends to be woody and fibrous. Simply hold the asparagus between the finger and thumb of both hands and bend it. It will snap off at exactly the right place.
Keep the broken off bits to flavor soup.
The flowering heads are delicate, but not so delicate that they can't be washed. Asparagus grows by pushing its spears up through the soil, so some grit is bound to be collected along the way. Rinse the heads thoroughly and under running water, if at all possible.
Now use a potato peeler to peel each stalk, starting about an inch below the flowering head. You can also keep these peelings for flavoring a sauce or soup. They'll freeze okay.
You can now steam the vegetable whole if you are serving it as an appetizer, or cut it into bite-sized pieces to add to pasta etc.
In a microwave, steaming will take from 2 to 3 minutes on full if you start out with hot water in your steamer. At the end of this the asparagus will be cooked but still retain texture and its shape.
Allow about 5 minutes in a top-of-the-stove steamer, once the steam starts to rise.
As an appetizer, asparagus is traditionally served with melted butter and salt, but you don't have to limit yourself to that. It will work equally well with a wide variety of sauces including hollandaise or a warm vinaigrette.
