Which food do you hate preparing?

[EcclesCake]

I am cooking up a vat of vindaloo and have to peel two bulbs of garlic. I hate peeling garlic, what do you hate cooking/preparing?

[zzxxee]

shes a good girl Olive :)
i dont have a dishwasher which is why its essential for my one pot theory.
Mr zzxxee is a fab cook but will use every pot pan spoon ect ect

[andy-hughes]

I really do not like cooking at all.

I equate it to cleaning the bathroom - if i can get someone else to do it, I will, if i do it, then i do it, but take no pleasure in it - in fact, given the choice, i would rather clean the bathroom than cook1

That said, I can prepare edible, if not haute cuisine food, and do my share of the cooking.

My major hate is honey - i loathe the smell and the taste of the stuff, so its a measure of love that I prepare porrige with honey most mornings for the present Mrs Hughes' breakfast.

Her similar hatred is for tinned tomatoes, and the meal I love - bacon and tomatoes - is one she has never ever prepared for me in thirty years. Good job I can do it myself - and i always eat it alone in the kitchen to spare her sensibilities.

As a final point - although as stated, i will prepare and cook food, I really hate having to do either once I have eaten. My pet hate is anyone wanting food when i am sitting down having finished a meal - but again, I do it because it needs to be done, and I never moan about it either!

[mrs_overall]

We have a shed full of Mr O's home grown spuds. They are either like knobbly like root ginger, or the size of marbles. I hate peeling them.

[zzxxee]

i would love an electronic spud peeler but dont know if they are any good

[mrs_overall]

zzxxee, I didn't know there was such a thing.
I pay one of the kids to peel my spuds

[Mamyalynne]

My only hate is the de-coring of kidneys, it turns into a circus act with the slippery things jumping around the board, love them though.

[zzxxee]

yep you pop your spuds in, switch a button and tada !! peeled potatos
but dont know how good they are argos sell them i would of thought?

[ummmm]

I'm with you on that one Andy. I also hate going food shopping when I'm not hungry. I can never decide what to get.

[Backdrifter]

There's nothing I actually HATE preparing but some jobs are annoyingly fiddly. Agree about de-coring kidneys but it's worth it when you're having a big cooked breakfast. Fish prep can be irritating.

By the way I know the OP wasn't looking for a solution to the garlic-peeling problem but Marie buried on page said what I was going to, which is that laying the flat of a knife on the clove and leaning on it (or as she said whacking it) breaks the clove and loosens the skin - you can usually just lift it off. No new gadgets required.

[zzxxee]

pop your garlic bulb into hot water for 20 seconds, it peels easily after :)

[EcclesCake]

Thank you to all for all the tips on preparing garlic, I know most of them although blanching is a new one on me. It doesn't change the fact that I find peeling garlic tiresome, whatever method you use you still have 30 of the little blighters to prep. A few years ago you could buy a garlic that was one giant clove, it was great when doing bulk cooking, sadly I haven't seen it for ages.

[ethandron]

i'm with you all about the washing up and am paranoid about clearing up as i go along. i won't sit down to dinner with a heap of pans or dishes at the side of the sink, have to get them washed up first as they're too big to fit in the dishawasher. hate to see crumby worktops too, just have to wipe them up.

[greeby]

i dislike peeling onions for he obvious reasons as well as it can be rather time consuming. Does anyone hereuse onion powder, if so what are the pros and cons of using the powder over onions aside from the fact that you probably couldn't make cheese and onion sandwiches with it.

[EcclesCake]

Greeby, using onion powder will give you half the flavour with none of the bulk or texture, I really wouldn't recommend it for most recipes. As others have mentioned you can buy chopped frozen onion which you could give a go. I haven't tried it myself but it might be worth you giving it a whirl.

[greeby]

Yes i fully understand ecclescake because i and probably everyone else use onions fo the flavour and for texture/bulking out foods even soups but as onion powder is out there surely there must be something in which it's more suitable than it's full bodied cousin?

[greeby]

I do use chopped frozen onions but find these flavourless.

[DTCwordfan]

artichokes - from fresh

[EcclesCake]

I can only really see onion powder being used as a seasoning in sauces or where you need that 'something extra' when making a shepherds pie or some such dish.

[NazNomad]

"... you pop your spuds in, switch a button and tada !!"

Ahem! Did I need to read back further than that post for it to be slightly less seedy?


p.s. I like washing up.

[DTCwordfan]

Lottie - you are a woman after my own heart as to your morbid hatred of bananas. Same here - I end up in hospital - can't even stand the smell of them and that is psychosomatic - the warning to be aware!!! Friends in Brussels once were preparing a fruit salad and someone put banana in. The hostess, quick as a flash, said, "Get it out DTC is coming around and can't stand them." Nothing was said to me. However, even though it was less than 15 secs, "This has had bananas in it!"