Title says it all. Mrsin has gotten into Julia Child cooking and wants a food processor. But we live in a small house 40% if the time and a camper 60% of the time. So we need something small. 95% of the cooking will be for 2 people. Dopers do your stuff and reco something!
I’d seriously recommend a 2-3 c volume food “chopper” for roughly chopping or blending up food. Not the so-called “magic bullet” (no, not the sex toy) types that look like an inverted blender, but the kind that look like scaled-down versions of food processors but with the “base” on the top.
Then for slicing and julienning, get the Oxo Good Grips mandoline and a nice cutting glove (woven with stainless steel fibers, about $15-20 at a cooking gear store/BB&B/etc.). It’s highly rated by Cook’s Illustrated and I love mine, plus the cutting glove avoids nasty accidents.
I don’t like using food processors for slicing/julienning as you have to cut down the vegetables to fit through the top feeder tube (which are smaller on tiny food processors), and it’s a pain to deal with and wash up if you don’t have much food to slice.
We’ve already passed on the “magic” bullet and Mrsin never cuts himself, unlike me. He doesn’t let me wash knives anymore:D
Any specific 2-3 cup processor?
http://www.ninjakitchen.com/NinjaMasterPrep.shtml
That specific model was featured in Consumer Reports recently as the best in class - it beat out the nearly $500 Vitamix it was up against by a few points.
Don’t have one myself, but we need a blender/processor, and Consumer Reports has never steered me wrong, so I’m getting it soon for my husband’s birthday.
What does she want it for?
My immersion blender came with a small processor attachment, which I use only occasionally. If I had a full sized one, I would make pastry in it, slice veggies with the slicer attachment, grind/pulverize nuts… none of these work with a little one.
Honestly, if space is a concern, just improve your knife skills.
Back in 2005, Cook’s Illustrated liked the KitchenAid Chef’s Chopper, but I suspect there are many good versions out there. I bought this Black & Decker 3 cup chopper and it seems to work just fine for average chopping/blending tasks.
Just remember that most food processors/choppers have a maximum volume for liquid-ish contents that’s just about the top of the center cylinder for the chopping bowl. Liquid seeps up under the chopper blade to match the level of the liquid in the bowl, and will eventually spill out under the bowl if you overfill it.
I had one of these (or something similar). I gave it to my daughter when I got my full size food processor. Works great!
I use my small Cuisinart more than my full size processor. I’ve had it more than 20 years and it works perfectly. If you have big loads it has an attachment with a chute but I don’t think I’ve ever used it.
As others have said, think about your needs in terms of a food processor. I went with “small chopper plus mandoline” because I was thinking about cooking on the go and the like. I don’t really make pastries and when I do bake, I use my full-size stand mixer. What do you like to cook and what would you use it for?
Thank you all for your suggestions. I’m going to be looking at these closer:
I like this one the most but I will not be using it, heh.
FH: I at first thought a mandoline was just some special sort of a knife so didn’t really pay attention to your original advice. I then googled it and both I and MrSin are intrigued. This might be what he is looking for. Especially when we are camping without electricity!
As for the cook, he is trying new stuff everyday (the joys of retirement). He has always been into pies and cakes and mousse and stuff like that. Now he is doing more stuff with veggies and fish and like I said Julia Child stuff. He made hollandaise the other day and it was heavenly.
Example of a cutting glove to go with a mandoline. This is not the “chainmail glove” that you’ll see with oyster shucking, but instead a stretchy cloth glove with metal fiber woven through it. Mandolines can do scary stuff to your hand if you’re not careful, but this glove makes it absolutely a breeze to use. And yeah, the mandoline is superb for small slicing/julienning jobs.