Kitchen collection

I haven't done a Kitchen Collection post in years. But this weekend we got a new food processor and I thought, why not? Our old processor was made by Braun; we bought it at Macy*s in San Francisco way back in 1988 or so. I was one of those people who used to say, "I don't need a food processor. That's what knives are for." Silly me. One day I wanted to make something that called for a lot of very fine chopping (a vegetable terrine or something similar) and we broke down and bought the Braun.

The old Braun food processor from 1988 with its four slicing and grating blades.

It was a great machine. At one point we got a new bowl for it as the original bowl was getting a bit scratched up. I use it all the time these days. I make pie crust in it. I use the attachments to grate carrots, celeriac, potatoes, and sometimes cheese. We also use it to chop basil for making pesto sauce. But I noticed recently that the central spindle is beginning to crack. That's not good. And just the other day I was grating some cheese and the part that holds the grating disks on the spindle shattered into several pieces when I turned the machine on. I decided it was time to look for a replacement.

The new Moulinex Master Chef. Ooooh, shiny!

This is where the internet comes in very handy. Ken and I did some online shopping and comparisons. I found out that Braun has moved out of large food processors and is favoring the smaller variety that are powered by stick blenders. In France, SEB makes a lot of different style of machines, each with different features and different power levels. We were tempted by several of those. I even looked at Cuisinart. I might be able to afford one if I mortgaged the house. Too big, too fancy, and not for me.

Clockwise from left: citrus juicer, blender bowl, centrifuge juicer, grating/slicing blades, whisk.

But then we saw this Moulinex (an old French company now owned by SEB, which also owns Krups, Tefal, and All-Clad, among other brands). The 3-liter bowl is a liter larger than the Braun bowl. It has two reversible grating and slicing disks, a wire whip attachment, a kneading blade, includes a citrus juicer and a centrifuge juicer (I'm not sure how we'll use that yet), and a 1.5-liter blender bowl attachment. At 1,000 watts, it's more powerful than the 750 watt Braun.

A close-up of the blender bowl. This will be good for making crêpe batters.

The Moulinex was featured on several online shopping sites, but Amazon had a deal that was significantly lower in price than most of the others. The only drawback was that they said it would take four to six weeks before they could ship it. So what, we said. It's worth the wait for that price, and the Braun still works without the grating attachments. So we placed the order.

The very next day we got a message from Amazon saying the processor was shipping and that we'd get it on Friday. And we did! The machine is larger than what we're used to, and I'm a bit tentative with it for the moment (the blade is so sharp that I actually cut my finger handling it), but I have a feeling it won't take us long to get used to it.

I should also mention that the old Braun, being an American model, needed to be plugged into a transformer to get its power. We have a transformer about the size of a small toaster sitting behind the microwave. When we first got it eight years ago, it powered three American appliances. Now it only powers one: the Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

I realized too late that I didn't take a picture of the dough kneading attachment. Oh well.