Things you love to eat but hate to clean/prep

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

Here's my two. First is real fire roasted green chile peppers. My DW is from New Mexico, so we roast our own fresh peppers. But they sure are a PITA to peel, de seed, etc. But I sure love to eat 'em (just did a bag of these in case you are wondering).

A close second is cleaning fish. Much of that depends on the place you get to do it.  Out at our farm (sadly our tank just dried up and all our fish were lost) I only had a table with a bunch of flies. Had to take them in the cabin to wash the fillets off.

JHC

[Buckshot Bob]

Lobster, crab , shrimp and yes as you mentioned cleaning fish . Seems I like seafood but it’s a pia 

I never look forward to making deviled eggs or ham roll ups around the holidays.

[John E. Law]

Anything that I hunt and kill. I can clean and dress game I just don't like doing it. I love eating venison and small hogs. Just don't like skinning then. Probably why I don't hunt anymore. I'll kill a hog if it's on the property but now I'll just cut out the backstrap and ham hocks, leave the rest for the buzzards, then bury it with the tractor when they're done. If I get a bug up my butt for some deer chili then I'll suck it up and do it.... but I'm hating it the entire time. 

 

JEL

[Subdeacon Joe]

Black Walnuts

 

Green Beans

 

Waffles - not that difficult, but making enough for 4 or 5 people just takes so bloody long.

 

Baklava - even using store bought dough.

 

Stuffed Mushrooms...or, coming right down to it, almost any appetizer that you need to make dozens of for 4 to 6 people.

 

 

 

[Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381]

Yep, I love chile rellenos and peeling poblano peppers is a PITA. Prepping Thai and Chinese dishes is also very time consuming.

[Pat Riot]

I was going to complain about my smoked chicken wings, but after reading your posts I decided my wings ain’t so bad. 

[Rip Snorter]

8 minutes ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I was going to complain about my smoked chicken wings, but after reading your posts I decided my wings ain’t so bad. 

I won't compare them to yours, but there are some really easy clean up, tasty oven wings. No fuss, no muss, no bother.

[Cholla]

Huevo Rancheros with hash browns. It takes forever to make four plates but everyone that visits want them again.

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

7 minutes ago, Cholla said:

Huevo Rancheros with hash browns. It takes forever to make four plates but everyone that visits want them again.

Have you tried something like this? Not like mama made, but not bad, and beats skinning your fingers grating taters.

JHC

https://www.samsclub.com/p/golden-grill-premium-hashbrown-potatoes/prod3170020?xid=plp_product_1

[Muggle]

I hate to clean up anything, that's why i have someone to help me with that. 

[PowderRiverCowboy]

2 hours ago, Capt. James H. Callahan said:

Here's my two. First is real fire roasted green chile peppers. My DW is from New Mexico, so we roast our own fresh peppers. But they sure are a PITA to peel, de seed, etc. But I sure love to eat 'em (just did a bag of these in case you are wondering).

A close second is cleaning fish. Much of that depends on the place you get to do it.  Out at our farm (sadly our tank just dried up and all our fish were lost) I only had a table with a bunch of flies. Had to take them in the cabin to wash the fillets off.

JHC

I hear you on the Green Chile but I roast them and freeze them and only peel as I need them .

  Spending a lot of time in New Mexico growing up I will say tamales  

[Buckshot Bob]

24 minutes ago, Capt. James H. Callahan said:

Have you tried something like this? Not like mama made, but not bad, and beats skinning your fingers grating taters.

JHC

https://www.samsclub.com/p/golden-grill-premium-hashbrown-potatoes/prod3170020?xid=plp_product_1

I get those at Costco. Sure takes the pia out of hash browns 

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

16 minutes ago, Muggle said:

I hate to clean up anything, that's why i have someone to help me with that. 

Me too. But I have a wife who gets enough now and then.

JHC

[Buckshot Bob]

2 hours ago, John E. Law said:

Anything that I hunt and kill. I can clean and dress game I just don't like doing it. I love eating venison and small hogs. Just don't like skinning then. Probably why I don't hunt anymore. I'll kill a hog if it's on the property but now I'll just cut out the backstrap and ham hocks, leave the rest for the buzzards, then bury it with the tractor when they're done. If I get a bug up my butt for some deer chili then I'll suck it up and do it.... but I'm hating it the entire time. 

 

JEL

I used to process all my own deer but anymore I just gut it and take it to the processor. I was never bad at skinning them and quartering them but I’m not much of a butcher . And I never enjoyed making sausage. I only kill a couple a year anymore so I’ll just pay for the convenience  

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

Catfish.

 

Love eatin' 'em... even enjoy cookin' 'em.  Cleaning?  NO thanks.

 

Grandpa used to recruit me to "help" clean 'em.  Hated it... only got "finned" once; that stung like the dickens.  But I was always weirded out by them still being alive hours after being caught.  Grandpa:  "Just nail their heads to a board and use pliers to peel the skin off!"  Over fifty years later, I don't recall at what stage of the process we gutted 'em.  but the entire process was unpleasant.

 

Deer?  No problem.  Ducks?  Pheasants?  Easy-peasy!  Doves?  Just breast 'em.  Squirrel and rabbit?  Simple... although I refuse to eat rabbit any more.

 

Catfish?  I'll buy 'em in frozen fillet form, thankee!  

[Cholla]

1 hour ago, Buckshot Bob said:

I used to process all my own deer but anymore I just gut it and take it to the processor. I was never bad at skinning them and quartering them but I’m not much of a butcher . And I never enjoyed making sausage. I only kill a couple a year anymore so I’ll just pay for the convenience  

I used to take it to a processor but after years of dealing with hair and a nasty taste, I decided to do it myself. No more hair and I trimmed away all the fat and silver skin. Suddenly, the gamey taste vanished and everyone started eating venison. But, it did take me four to six hours to totally process a deer. We preferred young does but that ended by moving to Arizona.

[Cholla]

2 hours ago, Capt. James H. Callahan said:

Have you tried something like this? Not like mama made, but not bad, and beats skinning your fingers grating taters.

JHC

https://www.samsclub.com/p/golden-grill-premium-hashbrown-potatoes/prod3170020?xid=plp_product_1

We use the frozen hash browns from Walmart but it still seems to take forever as everyone wants a massive pile of hash browns, so that means one meal at a time unless I use two skillets. If Village Inn was still around here, I would just say to eat out as they used to have HR. I asked the local breakfast joint we like to eat at to make them. They said it would be a bad idea for a Scandinavian to try cooking a Tex-Mex dish.

Now, if I don't want to cook HR we go to Williams, AZ. A local restaurant there offers "Christmas" huevo rancheros, one side green chili and one side red chili!

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I’ve done a lot of squid. Remove the black filmy skin, pull out the legs, remove the beak. Find the ink pouch and save it, someone will want to make squid ink pasta. Clean out the insides making sure to get the quill.  Might be something I forgot here.

 

if doing baked stuffed calamari, want to chop the legs and include in the stuffing.

When I drew squid at CIA San Antonio, there were four good sized squid. Chef did one as a demo for the class and I played Tom Sawyer and offered two to my team mates who most likely never see a whole squid again in their lives. One was a bank President in Amarillo (family owned bank) the other was a radiologist from Dayton.

[Doc Shapiro]

I don't mind dealing with seafood at all.  Once in a long while I made chicken cheese "steak" style sandwiches.  The prep for that takes a long time.  Finely chopping onions, green and red bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, and the chicken.  It takes a long time.  Especially since my hands shake like a leaf in a high wind (I have something called an "essential tremor").  It's a lot of work, and very frustrating.  So I don't make them often.  But now that I've typed that out, I might go ahead and make it next weekend.

[Buckshot Bob]

6 hours ago, Cholla said:

I used to take it to a processor but after years of dealing with hair and a nasty taste, I decided to do it myself. No more hair and I trimmed away all the fat and silver skin. Suddenly, the gamey taste vanished and everyone started eating venison. But, it did take me four to six hours to totally process a deer. We preferred young does but that ended by moving to Arizona.

I have a couple different people who do a fantastic job . During deer season it’s kind of a cottage industry in MI . One of the guys I use also makes excellent sausage. If you’re going to someone who leaves the silver skin on or has hair on the wrapped meat your just picking the wrong processor/butcher shop . It’s no different than a cow or pig , you can generally tell what kind of job you’re going to get by looking at the shop, but not always. 

[Chantry]

Making won tons, takes forever to wrap them up.    Making a big pot of chili, takes about at least a hour, or more,  of chopping the onions & peppers and browning the meat.  However I get about 14 meals out of it.

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

Pomegranate 

[Sedalia Dave]

9 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

Catfish.

 

Love eatin' 'em... even enjoy cookin' 'em.  Cleaning?  NO thanks.

 

Grandpa used to recruit me to "help" clean 'em.  Hated it... only got "finned" once; that stung like the dickens.  But I was always weirded out by them still being alive hours after being caught.  Grandpa:  "Just nail their heads to a board and use pliers to peel the skin off!"  Over fifty years later, I don't recall at what stage off the process we gutted 'em.  but the entire process was unpleasant.

 

Deer?  No problem.  Ducks?  Pheasants?  Easy-peasy!  Doves?  Just breast 'em.  Squirrel and rabbit?  Simple... although I refuse to eat rabbit any more.

 

Catfish?  I'll buy 'em in frozen fillet form, thankee!  

 

As a kid I have skinned lots of Catfish. As an adult I now fillet them. I mostly fish for High Fin Blues from a boat so if legal to do so I prefer to do it on the water before heading back to the dock. I have a large piece of oak plank that I can lay across the gunnels at the bow. Fillet knife is a 12 volt electric. Start at the head and follow the rib cage. Stop just before the tail, flip the slab over and remove the skin. Repeat on the other side. Catfish belly meat is the absolute worst cut so it stays with the carcass. Done properly you now have a boneless fillet. Drop it into a large Tupperware container with some ice. Skewer the swim bladder and drop the carcass it over the side for natural recycling. No smelly docks, boat ramps or fish cleaning stations.  Use a bucket of lake water to rinse off the boat. Rinse the knife blades and board in the lake and I'm done.

 

Here in Texas I cannot clean on the lake, so I bring them home and do it in the back yard using a plastic topped folding table I got from Costco.  All the waste goes into a puncture proof trash bag.  When done I close it up and put it in a plastic wash tub that goes into the freezer. Wash down the area well to remove anything that will attract flies. On trash day I put the bag it in the bin and it is in the garbage truck before it can start smelling up the place.

 

Forgot to add that I brain them with a ball peen hammer before I start cleaning them.

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

2 hours ago, Dirty Dan Dawkins said:

Pomegranate 

I learned the method commonly taught, cut it in half and smack the halves with a big spoon. I’ve seen the Food Network chefs do it that way such as Bobby Flay.

 

but this method looks better, the guy is wordy but his method beats everything.

 

 

[Rye Miles #13621]

I don't cook  very often and when I do it's pretty simple stuff so nothing is a problem to clean up unless I burn something in the frying pan! 

[Eyesa Horg]

If I cook it probably comes out of can and gets nuked! Minimal clean up!

[Rye Miles #13621]

5 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

If I cook it probably comes out of can and gets nuked! Minimal clean up!

I hear ya right there!!

[Dungannon Gunner]

Turtle

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

1 hour ago, Eyesa Horg said:

If I cook it probably comes out of can and gets nuked! Minimal clean up!

You use a cover?

[MAYOBARD SASS #13025L]

Food.  I hate cleaning and prepping food.  I like eating it though, especially when someone else cooks and cleans it first.

[Subdeacon Joe]

I see that several people are confusing clean and prep with cleaning up afterwards.

[Dusty Devil Dale]

Cleaning and cutting steaks from a slimy, slippery, smelly salmon and cleaning up the awful mess afterwards.  

Or cleaning/fileting a tuna twice your own weight by yourself without a hoist or block & Tackle. 

[Eyesa Horg]

2 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

You use a cover?

A paper towel!

[Rye Miles #13621]

1 hour ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

I see that several people are confusing clean and prep with cleaning up afterwards.

Ha ha that would be me !! 

[MizPete]

I hate cleaning the meat loaf pan.