Kitchen tasks you loathe even though you like to cook

[moondog]

Cutting broccoli. Those little buds get everywhere and prove resistant to removal by wet or dry cloth.
Nigel Slater once said that anything which involved retrieving a heavy pan made his heart sink a little. I so get that.

Making pastry. Cutting in cubes of butter? Forget that noise.

Now I Kitchen Aid it and we're all much happier (especially as it means, for example, apple pie on a weekday rather than when the Queen comes round).

Chopping veg, and washing up.

Unloading the dishwasher

Jointing raw chicken. Just something about the smell, texture and sinews that makes me boak. Am fine with other meat though I did once make a rabbit pie and kept honking of the cat hen I was taking the poached meat off the bones.

Touching raw chicken.. Even resorted to gloves.. BOAK

** thinking of the cat when

I totally agree with making mashed potato. What an absolute pain in the arse job that is. Peeling then mashing and then boiling milk and all that crap.

Anything which involves getting the sodding pestle and mortar out. Which is often as I make curry quite a bit. I have been meaning for years to buy a coffee bean grinder specifically for spices but I haven't got round to it. Grinding star anise is a special pain all on its own.

How do you tomato-skinning haters skin your tomatoes then? I just cut a cross in the top where the calyx is, then pour boiling water over them and leave for 10 mins, after which the skin slips off without a bother. I used to hate frying aubergine slices for moussaka, until I discovered that it's easier to paint them with oil using a pastry brush, and pop under the grill until golden, turning once. I still hate cleaning squid, weird intestines and stuff in them - nowadays I make sure the fishmonger does it for me! Still haven't got the hang of getting all the membrane off monkfish! I hate preparing swede, 'cos it's tough bugger to chop.

I dislike chopping swede as well. I often get the knife stuck in it and it won't shift at all and I feel like the character in the sword in the stone.

So true Orf.
I have been known to whirl massive root veg around my head in manner of Miss Trunchbull with the hammer.

Cutting butternut squash in half
Peeling fresh garlic then nipping upstairs to check something mumsnet getting garlic juice all over my mouse. So I have garlicy fingers for weeks. And cleaning the garlic press.

I would never make mash.
What a faff.

Pomegranates.
Peeling thereof.

I don't peel potatoes, just chop and boil then mash, all the goodness is in the skin.

Sweetpotato mash - pop in oven and roast for an hour, then the skin comes away from the flesh and you scoop the flesh out and mash easy peasey

I buy frozen chopped onions from Waitrose after too many incidents of no onions at all when I needed them or too many and they had all gone off. Plus I cry at everything as it is so definitely don't need another bloody reason.

Washing all the Magimix components

Helish - buy the reusable or paper tin liners.

Also, your can buy lazy garlic for those who hate peeling it.

It's got to be defrosting the fridge/freezer, for me - aaargh, I hate this so much that I keep putting it off until I can hardly close its door, because the icebergs in there have grown so ungainly, and jut out so far! It's got to that stage now so I'll have to take a deep breath soon and write off a whole morning to melting down these polar ice-shelves (while all the contents gradually turn soggy and unsafe in cooler bags...) And I will feel SO virtuous afterwards - for a few more months....

Oh Christ I can't be arsed with pomegranates. I just buy packets of the things like the extravagant and wasteful woman I am.

I remember inspired by Nigella when I was 20 and stupid I bought some quince and tried to chop those mothers up. Never again.

Frozen shallots from waitrose are great, but the best thing ever is frozen garlic. Not in those godforsaken ice cube tray things, but loose. They are really good and you don't get garlicky fingers.

Cleaning up after rolling pastry; the flour gets everywhere.

I never use the processer now because of the dismantling and washing up. I do like pestling and mortaring though

Frozen veg incl onions and garlic is brilliant, especially for things where the freshness doesn't matter so much. Would not use frozen onions for onion soup, for ex, but in a curry or casserole they are fine.

Anything with poppy seeds.

Not after I dropped a tub of those little bastards. Sweeping those up was like capturing mercury. So they are banned.

Grating cheese.

Grating anything (but especially cheese) and peeling garlic. I'm so buying the frozen stuff tomorrow.