Most of my worst ones have been nailed already, I see.
I HATE cleaning shrimp. If it’s just a pound of jumbos to grill up for dinner for my wife and me I can deal with it, it’s usually over in fifteen minutes or so. But shrimp for a crowd? Sure, I’ll cook 'em, if YOU don’t mind slitting each one of the little bastards, flushing out the gunk, and yanking off the shells.
Anything with phyllo pastry. My wife suggested a spanokopita for Thanksgiving. I told her I’d make the filling if she and her mother stood there and brushed butter over those damn fragile pastry sheets (Oooops! Tore ANOTHER one!). The suggestion sank rapidly.
Pastitsio, too. Delicious, but way too many pots and pans, followed by oven time on top of it.
Beans I don’t mind at all. Ditto soups and stews. The work’s all at the beginning, then you can clean up at a leisurely pace as the house fills up with the enticing aromas.
Home-baked bread I used to consider not worth the trouble, but as I’m getting better at it it’s getting easier to deal with. Homemade pizza is actually more of a pain in the ass.
Fried chicken’s a horror to clean up after (EVERY surface in the kitchen needs to be wiped down, it seems), but it never seemed like all that much work to prepare.
Pakoras. It isn’t that they’re a hassle, it’s that I get bessan batter everywhere. All over the the work surface, all over the stove top, all over me, on my apron, on the floor…
Tiramisu, or pretty much any dessert for that matter. The other day I realized that I despise baking and dessert making because of the amount of precision involved. I’m more of a ‘shoot from the hip’ type chef, so I like to have artistic license. This is also the reason I havn’t made the Fanny Farmer Swedish tea ring in about ten years.
OTOH, since I discovered no-boil noodles, I love making lasagne. Aside from browning the meat, it’s easy to prepare if you’re willing to go with frozen spinach pre-shredded mozzarella, and canned spag sauce. Tofu lasagne doesn’t even require the browning, so total prep time goes down to about 20 minutes.
Sushi. You have to cook the rice, cook, peel, and devein the shrimp, prepare the fish and veggies, cook the crunchies (for crunchy shrimp rolls), and then prepare the darn things. It takes forever and ends up with sticky rice everywhere. Still, it’s so much cheaper to prepare at home. . .
Practically anything dessert. I made baklava and croissants once. I’ve also made cream puffs. Never again. Potpie- you have to cook everything, and then put it in pastry and bake it. Really good stuffed omelets. Anything Asian, including pho, which I love so much I have seriously considered making, although I’d probably kill myself by the end.
Some of my major ones have been covered except for one:
Tamales. Prepping and soaking the corn husks, preparing the masa, cooking the filling… then stuffing and tying the husks, then steaming them…
I used to make them at one of the restaurants I worked at–it kept my hands busy when my usual station was slow. Hated it, even though I love tamales with a passion.
And the thought occured to me tonight that I might make them for Christmas. I must be a total idiot.
Ooh. You know, I read through this whole thread, thinking “I love to make all this stuff”, even the stuff with filo dough, cassoulet, and beef wellington (kiffa, I have a wonderful Beef Wellington recipe for two if you’re interested), but you’re right, Nightingale. Sushi is hard, and it’s the only thing I can think of that’s not worth the trouble. I’d rather go to one of our (two) local sushi bars.
Hubby and I usually tag team it; I do the cooking parts while he slices fish and veggies and makes the rolls. It takes two to three hours to put together the meal. We still go out for sushi once in a while, but what he makes at home is usually as good or better than the restaurant, plus we can feed ourselves and five or six friends for about thirty bucks. We just have to plan ahead so that we leave ourselves plenty of time to get stuff done and clean up afterward.
Lasagne
I haven’t prepared it in over two years because of how time-consuming it is. Last month’s issue of Cooks Illustrated tested no-boil lasagne noodles, though. I’ve been threatening to cook lasagne for the past month now. I still haven’t gotten around to it, though.
Shrimp dishes
I ain’t deveining shrimp. Hubby will, though, god love 'im.
Chicken and dumplings
It’s not really that hard, but it takes a bit. I make chicken fricassee first and that involves chopping the veggies, browning the chicken, taking it out, cooking the veggies, making some sort of roux-like substance, putting it all back in, letting it cook, making the dumplings, etc.
Roasts aren’t that bad. The only work involves chopping the veggies and browning the sucker. I’ve been lazy lately, though, and have been preparing them in the crock pot. Sometimes, I don’t even brown it first.
Its not that bad. I make pakoras a lot too, doesn’t take more than 10 minutes to clean up, and the batter stays where its supposed to.
Now if you’d have said samosas, I’d have been with you. They’re such a pain to fold into little equilateral triangles, and if you don’t cut the pastry correctly, they mock you, and only fold into, at best, right angled triangles, which don’t look nearly as nice.
Angua (Who’s going to go home and have homemade chicken soup…hmmm… :))
Definitely fried chicken. My grandma made absolutely killer fried chicken, and nothing I make comes even close.
Actually, most meat dishes. I’m not a vegetarian, but my SO is, so I don’t cook meat at home and I’m very out of practice. Fortunately, my mom take pity on me and fixes my favorite meaty treats when I go home to visit.
Shrimp aren’t too bad with a plastic or metal deveiner. Cooking lobster is pretty easy–throw them in boiling water. It’s the eating of them that’s tedious, and that’s the same at home or in a restaurant.
Marzipan makes a big sticky mess. I’d rather buy the German stuff at World Market.
Salad. Yes, plain old tossed salad. I hate all the cutting up of the stuff and I hate the mess that it makes and I hate washing the lettuce. Also, if I do it once, chances are I won’t want to do it again real soon and then the leftover stuff will go bad and I’ll have to throw it out and my husband will be annoyed.