Matestar food processor

As documented earlier in this blog, we bought a Kenwood multi-pro food processor nearly ten years ago. The blender part was not very satisfactory; it started to leak after just a few years, and was very difficult to clean. However, the food processor part continued to work well, despite the beginnings of a crack at the bottom of the main bowl. 

But I was finding myself increasingly irritated by the limited capacity. The bowl could theoretically hold 1.2 litres, but that doesn't mean it can be filled to that capacity before using. I found that if I made pastry with more than about 300g flour total (and 150g fat) it wouldn't mix properly. If I made coleslaw, even with a small cabbage, I had to run it four times, with no more than a quarter of the cabbage, or it didn't fully cut it. 

Not, in the scheme of things, a huge problem. But an annoyance. A food processor is supposed to save time and effort, and it wasn't really doing so. Sometimes I resorted to doing things by hand as it was quicker, and saved washing up, even though the result wasn't as good. And sometimes I decided not to bother with something I had thought about making, as it would be too much hassle. 

In the middle of December last year, we were in Superhome Centre, buying a new microwave. We found one we liked it a better price than we were expecting to pay. And I started looking at food processors. I was thinking how much easier it would be to do some of the Christmas preparation with a bigger, more powerful one. We started checking the reviews online. In the past, we've tended to choose well-known, trusted brand names. But there are many good brands now, and they all have to have a guarantee of at least two years. 

We decided we would treat ourselves, and put our old (still functioning) food processor in the guest flat. We initially, opted for a Moulinex which looked like excellent value, and claimed to have a bowl size of 2.5 litres. Then, when we got it home, we discovered that the bowl size was only about 1.2 litres, no bigger than our Kenwood processor. We put it back in the box and returned to the store, where they agreed that it was a problem. I was disappointed, as it was a nice-looking appliance that felt well-made and strong. 

So we checked what else they had in stock, and eventually chose the Matestar. We had the box opened in the shop so we could check that the bowl actually goes up to 3 litres. It didn't feel quite as strong as the others, but said it had 1000 watts of power. I didn't realise until we got home that the bowl was not dishwasher-safe, but decided that was a minor issue, and we didn't want to replace it yet again.  It was more expensive than the Moulinex, but not extortionate. 

The day after we bought it, we were entertaining our friends, as we do every other Sunday afternoon. I wanted to make carrot soup; in the past I had roughly chopped carrots. But I don't do well with sharp knives, so the pieces would be quite large, and would take a long time to cook. I threw the entire kilogram of peeled carrots, just cut into halves or thirds, in the food processor: 

Thirty seconds later, I had this: 

So much easier! 

I also wanted to make a lemon drizzle cake. My old food processor wasn't big enough to take enough of the mixture for eight or nine people. The new one worked perfectly: 

(And the resulting cake was one of the best lemon drizzle cakes that I have ever made). 

The food processor comes with several attachments. There's no blender - I have not been at all impressed with blenders attached to food processors. But there's a juicing attachments, and the usual slicing and grating discs. There's an emulsifying disc, too. In three months, I haven't used any of those. 

So the only attachments I keep with the food processor are the two mixing tools: a hard plastic one, which works well for cakes and similar soft mixtures, and the metal blades, which are ideal for chopping. Each one slides over the central (removable) part, and they take apart for washing. 

I have to admit I find the metal blades a tad alarming; they're extremely sharp (don't ask me how I know...). And when they're attached to the central unit, it's not easy to remove them without getting cut (no, really, don't ask). But I've worked out how to do it, and haven't had a problem since the early stages. 

Later in December I made the mixture for my favourite vegan 'sausage' rolls using the food processor, and that turned out perfectly. As did both marzipan and royal icing for my Christmas cake. 

So far this year I have made pastry several times - no need to limit myself to small amounts - and other cakes. The bowl is easy to clean, as are the blades, so long as one is careful. 

Overall, I think - at least, so far - that this was an excellent buy, and I'm very pleased that we decided to get it before Christmas. 

Kenwood Multipro food processor

I’ve had various jug blenders over the years, some better than others. I’ve also had a couple of second-hand Moulinex food processors which more than gave me my money’s worth. When my most recent one started making graunching noises, I decided to look for a new one before it gave up entirely. I discovered that the Moulinex varieties are no longer made.

FOOD PROCESSOR HUNTING

We live in Cyprus, and good quality appliances tend to be over-priced here. So I checked the Lakeland website in the UK. They offer excellent service, a useful guarantee if anything goes wrong, and a reasonable fee for postage via courier.

Browsing through their options, I was struck by the Kenwood compact 'multipro' food processor. It has a blender as well as a food processor (some variations also have a herb mill/grinder, but this particular box set doesn’t) and seemed to be highly rated. It was on offer at just under £50. I was concerned it might be a bit small, but then there are only two of us living here now. I entertain from time to time, and like having a food processor for many things I make from scratch.

I found one or two other things I wanted from Lakeland, so eventually I put together the order, including a food processor for me as well as for a local friend who wanted one and agreed to share the postage.

FOOD PROCESSOR SETUP

Within about four days, the courier arrived with my new food processor. It was extremely well packed and everything was in excellent condition. I was slightly puzzled that the box claimed that it had twelve different uses; I could only come up with seven. But apparently the same box is used when other attachments are included, such as a herb mill and citrus juicer.

Putting it together was straightforward, even for some as mechanically challenged as I am. The main part, housing the motor, is bigger than I had expected. The food processor bowl has the usual hard plastic sides, with a well-fitting lid and removable pusher. The main cutting blade is metal, and there’s a grating/slicing attachment that can be fitted too. The blender is also a bit bigger than I had expected, holding over a litre of fluid. The food processor or the blender fit on top of the motor unit and won’t operate unless correctly clicked in place.

MAKING COLESLAW

My first experiment was some coleslaw; rather than using the grating attachment, I simply cut a peeled carrot into a few chunks and threw that in the food processor with the main metal blade, and ran it for a few seconds before adding the cabbage.

I quickly discovered that the capacity isn’t all that big; it would take about half a small white cabbage, but if I tried to add any more it bounced around on top of what was already cut. That wasn’t really a problem; I decanted what I had made already and did the rest separately. I was impressed at the speed and power. The specification is 750w which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s very effective.

MAKING CAKES AND BISCUITS

While I use a hand mixer for standard Victoria sponges, I have other recipes where ingredients are all thrown in together, including some gluten-free cakes that use chickpeas rather than flour. The Kenwood food processor works well for these, ensuring that the chickpeas are chopped so well that nobody would guess that they were present.

Cake or biscuit/cookie mixture processes into a ball in about twenty seconds and is easy to spoon into tins or on a baking tray. A useful spatula was provided with the Kenwood set, which enables me to remove any last  bits of mixture without any danger of scratching the surface.

NUT BUTTERS

I love peanut butter and other nut butters, but commercial brands are either full of additives, or extortionately expensive. We can buy basic nuts in bulk here, but when I tried making nut butters with my old food processor, the results were never all that great. With my Kenwood processor, however, I was able to make beautifully smooth peanut butter in about three minutes, out of nothing but peanuts. Other nut butters are equally successful.

NUT MILKS

My husband is dairy-free so I make my own coconut or nut milks. I’m pleased to find that cashew milk and cashew-based ice creams can be made using the blender. If raw cashews are soaked overnight, and then drained, they can be whizzed with a little water to make cashew cream, with more water added to make an excellent milk substitute for cooking or adding to coffee.

In the past I’ve used my stick blender, but the results were gritty and had to be strained. With this Kenwood blender, no straining is necessary, meaning that all the nutrients of the cashews are present in the nut milk - and if I don’t stir it before using, delicious cashew cream remains in the bottom.

SOUPS AND KETCHUP

I make soups and tomato ketchup at home, too. While I prefer to blend them in a saucepan using my stick blender, it doesn’t give nearly such a good result as the Kenwood blender. I have to weigh up the convenience of liquidising in the pan against the increased smoothness with the blender; usually convenience wins, but for special occasions, or if I can’t get the soup to the smoothness I want, the blender is ideal.

OTHER USES

That’s just a few of my most frequent uses of this excellent appliance. I’ve also used the food processor for making breadcrumbs, for grating blocks of cheese, for chopping onions, and more. It’s so quick and easy, and feels so powerful that I keep it on the countertop and use it regularly.

There’s an emulsifying tool too, for mayonnaise; however I haven’t yet used that.

CLEANING

While most of the parts are suitable for a dishwasher, I usually wash them by hand as they’re quick and easy, and the jug parts, at least, would be a bit awkward to fit in the dishwasher. As soon as I’ve used either the processor or the blender, I fill them with soapy water to soak, and then wash them properly later. They don’t take long and aren’t fiddly at all. It’s not a good idea to leave a sharp blade soaking in a washing up bowl, as I know to my cost.

INSTRUCTIONS

The machine is accompanied by a slimline instruction booklet, with detailed diagrams showing every part of the food processor (including the variations not in this particular box) on the inside front cover. This is followed by the usual safety regulations, warnings about over-hot liquids and the sharpness of blades, and so on. There are then more specific instructions about each of the different attachments, a troubleshooting guide, and a few (very few) suggested recipes.

As with most instruction manuals, I skimmed it rapidly, used it to check that all parts were present and correct, and then put it in my collection of appliance instructions, just in case I ever need them.

GENERAL RECOMMENDATION

My first impressions were of a surprisingly big food processor, for the cost, although it fits quite neatly on my worktop. It’s easy to operate, with two distinct speeds, and while I’ve had to learn not to put too much in the bowl at once, it’s big enough for most of my purposes. The blender part is probably the best blender I’ve ever had.

The suction on the feet is very strong, which is good while in operation, as it stops the appliance from jumping around, but I found it slightly annoying at first; I keep it at the back of my work surface, but want to move it forward to use. The suction is so good that it was hard to move until I had the idea of keeping it on an old place mat. That makes it easy to slide forwards and backwards to use, but still stops the thing from moving around on its own.

All in all, I am extremely pleased with this machine. Highly recommended.

2022 UPDATE

The food processor, I am happy to report, still works well over seven years after purchase. I suppose I use it on average two or three times per month; I particularly like it for making pastry, although it's slightly annoying that the capacity is limited, so I can't make a large amount in one go. I still use it for coleslaw, for my annual marzipan and royal icing for the Christmas cake, and one or two other things. I have successfully made vegan mayonnaise using the emulsifier attachment, but never use the grater attachment. It's quicker to use a hand grater, and much easier to clean.

The blender part, however, started to leak after about three years. Just a few drops at first, but it appeared that unscrewing the base to clean weakened it - and the seals do become very dirty if not cleaned, no matter how well one washes the blender as a whole. I couldn't find replacement seals, and a replacement jug was going to prove almost as expensive as a new food processor.

So I decided to buy a new high-speed blender for our nut milks, to use the stick blender for soups and ketchup, and to keep the food processor part. It has been a good decision.

The food processor won't last forever; but nowadays seven years seems to be a good lifespan for any electrical appliance. While this particular model is no longer available, Kenwood still do a range of compact 'multipro' food processors.

Moulinex Ovatio 3 Food Processor

 Years ago I had a food processor, but rarely used it. I didn't have room for it on my work surface, and there was no easy way of storing all the various attachments, other than to pack them away neatly in the box. Then it always seemed such a hassle to take out again. It was good for grating cheese or chopping onions, but took so much time and effort to put together (and then clean up and put away again) that I generally didn't bother.

About six months ago, I reconsidered, after watching a friend who uses her food processor almost daily.  After much thought - and being in the right place at the right time -  I managed to buy a Moulinex Ovatio 3 Duo food processor (model AAT7R4) second-hand for £25.  

What a wonderful buy it has turned out to be! 

OVERVIEW

There's a large bowl, meaning up to 1.5kg of ingredients can be processed, with a well-fitting lid with a chute for adding extra items while processing.  It has the standard food processing tools:  graters, slicers, a mixer and two chopping blades (metal and plastic), plus a central removable spindle which holds them.  It also has citrus juicing attachments, an egg-beater and a plastic spatula. 

It also has a small instruction booklet with detailed diagrams which - to my surprise - made sense to me as I worked out what each part would do.  There is also information given in nine languages about how to use the food processor.  I found them sufficient to get it working, albeit a little sparse. There were no recipes, which was slightly disappointing, but it's easy enough to find books of food processor recipes, or relevant web-sites.  

One of my favourite features is the design which allows most of the tools to fit inside the main bowl, packed neatly on a storage rack which has a handle in the middle, making it very quick to take out and put away again.  A few other tools live in a drawer nearby. I keep the food processor on my work surface, and like my friend, I find I do use it nearly every day.  

BLENDING
As a 'duo' machine, it also has a liquidiser (blender) which can be slotted in above the motor.  My sons use this regularly to make fruity milk shakes, and are pleased with the large capacity (a litre and a half - enough for the whole family) and the speed with which it works. They find it safer than our previous blender, since the lid locks in place when the motor is on. There's a removable centre to the lid through which other ingredients can be added while it's running, but this hole is much too small for a hand to be poked inside.  

Fine breadcrumbs can be made easily in a few seconds, and if I want to make hummus I can easily liquidise cooked chick-peas. In the winter it ensured smooth and creamy home-made soups. 

So we no longer need our old liquidiser. 

JUICING
There's a very effective juicer function. Not a full one; it's only intended for citrus fruits. Since we grow oranges and lemons, this is extremely useful, and it's a great deal more powerful than our previous citrus juicer.  There's a plastic strainer which fits neatly in the processor bowl, and a cone-shaped juicing tool which fits on top. The fruit must be halved, then pushed gently down on the juicing tool while the food processor is switched on until the juice is all extracted.  

Up to a litre can be squeezed before the bowl needs to be emptied - much better than the 250ml that other old juicer held. It does allow some of the smaller chunky bits of orange through, which is excellent for me as I love 'bitty' orange juice; it also means that the strainer part doesn't get clogged before the bowl is full.  One of my sons likes juice without any bits, but he simply pours his through a fine-mesh nylon sieve to get the consistency he wants.

So we no longer need our old juicer. 

GRATING
There's a large grater disc and a smaller one for finer grating.  These sit at the top of the bowl on top of the main spindle attachment, and anything to be grated has to be fed through the chute in the processor lid, pushed down with the pusher attachment. I suppose it would be possible to have an accident with long fingers, but the chute is quite tall so I doubt if a child would be in any danger.

I have only used the grater for cheese, so far.  I dislike grating cheese with an ordinary grater, so I love this part of the food processor.  Of course it's a bit of an overkill to use it for just a small piece of cheese; there's always a little ungrated chunk left at the end which whizzes around but does not go through the grating attachment.  So what I do now is to grate an entire half kilogram of cheese at the same time, and keep what I don't need in the fridge, in a plastic tub with a lid.  I use grated cheese perhaps two or three times per week, so this definitely saves time.

However I can't get rid of my manual grater, because I still have to use it for finely grating lemon zest.  

CHOPPING
We love coleslaw in our family, but what a pain it is cutting up cabbage and then grating carrot.  Messy, too.  So I didn't make it very often until I had my Ovatio.  

Now it takes about thirty seconds.  I don't use the grater attachment for the carrots, I simply throw them in the food processor with the metal chopping blade first (peeled, of course) and then when they're reasonably well-chopped I add some cabbage, roughly cut into portions that fit.  Ten seconds or so of processing and I have exactly what I need.  Just a tablespoon or two of mayonnaise, and a sprinkling of sultanas or sunflower seeds on top - and a perfect coleslaw.

As for onions - well, what a difference this makes!  I love onions, and use them almost every day, but chopping them by hand always gives me streaming eyes.  he chopping board constantly smelt of onions, too.  Again it's a bit of an overkill to use the food processor for just one onion - I don't think I'd bother, since it does lead to more washing up than a simple knife and chopping board.  

Instead I now buy a kilogram of onions at a time.  I top, tail and peel them all, then put them all in the food processor.  Twenty seconds or so of processing with the metal blade, and I have beautifully chopped onions for at least a week.  I divide them into freezer bags with about 200g in each, and then store them in a plastic box in the freezer.  Of course that all takes about ten minutes in all, by the time I've washed up the food processor afterwards.  But it certainly saves time in the long run, not to mention my eyes!  

KNEADING
I love baking, but I don't like messy parts such as rubbing fat into flour for pastry or some cakes.  I also find that the whole creaming-mixing-folding of most cakes is a bit long-winded and quite tiring, particularly in the summer.  A food processor takes all the hard work out of this.  Now I just throw the ingredients in my Moulinex machine, process with the plastic blade for about thirty seconds, and then use as necessary.   There's so much less mess, and overall I find it leads to less washing up, not more.

My biggest surprise was finding that I could use this to make bread.  I don't think you can beat the smell of fresh bread, but I find ten minutes of hand-kneading such hard work. So before I had my food processor, I simply didn't bake bread very often.  I tried an electric breadmaker.  Again it was second-hand, and we did have some quite good results from it.  But other times it produced half-risen heavy bread, and once or twice it gave us bricks that weren't edible at all.  There are limited possible shapes of loaf with a breadmaker, and the paddles always seem to end up in the bottom of the bread.  

My kitchen is chilly in the winter, and extremely hot in the summer.  And I like to vary my bread, depending on how I feel.  Now with my Ovatio, I can have perfect bread every day without any hassle.  

So I can even get rid of the ancient breadmaker (which I actually hadn't used for about two years anyway). 

If you want to make bread in a food processor, do make sure the bowl is big enough.  My 1.5kg size seems to be fine for a family-sized loaf of bread, but with a smaller one you might have problems.  

WHIPPING
There's a beater-type attachment that will whip cream or evaporated milk, or egg whites.  However I'm not getting rid of my little hand-mixer (also a Moulinex) because I prefer the control that a hand-mixer gives me.  The Ovatio beater doesn't quite reach to the bottom of the bowl, nor the edge, so it leaves little bits not quite beaten.  

WASHING-UP
A lot of people complain that the worst problem with a food processor is all the washing up.  I haven't found this to be a problem at all.  We don't have a dishwasher (most of the parts are dishwasher-safe) but I find that if I fill the bowl with water immediately after use, and then put any attachments inside it, it's quick and easy to wash up whenever is convenient.  Even bread or cake dough haven't caused problems.  It certainly doesn't make more washing up than using spoons and ordinary bowls, and when I make bread there's far less mess on the work surface since I don't have to do any sticky kneading.  


CONCLUSIONS
Having my food processor has saved space.  I've been able to get rid of three other appliances so there's plenty of room to have it on my counter-top.  It has also saved time and frustration with grating cheese and chopping onions, and given us far more coleslaw and other chopped raw vegetables than ever before.

In addition it has given us the option of fresh-baked bread every day, with ingredients of my choosing - no preservatives or other artificial additives, and no sugar (I use honey instead).  Over a year this is a considerable saving in money, too.  

I don't know how long it will last - it was in remarkably good condition for a second-hand appliance, but these things don't survive forever.  However just a few months' use has convinced me that if at any point this one breaks and cannot be repaired, I shall almost certainly buy the same model new as replacement.  Or something similar by Moulinex, who are a reputable and reliable manufacturer that I trust for kitchen appliances.  

Highly recommended.  

2022 UPDATE

The Ovatio Duo lasted us just two years; we have no idea how old it was when we bought it. While in our kitchen, it had fairly heavy usage almost every day. Perhaps the juicing wore the motor out.  Or maybe it was the bread dough, which is quite heavy. However we certainly had our money's worth. 

It was, sadly, impossible to find an exact replacement, but we did manage to find a smaller Moulinex Ovatio 2 food processor in the thrift store for a similar price. That lasted us nearly seven years, but as it didn't come with a juicer attachment and had a smaller bowl, we didn't use it for juicing or making bread.  So I had to buy another juicer, and we've had a series of breadmakers which have all worked rather better than the second-hand one which I discarded in 2005. 

We now have an even smaller Kenwood 'compact' food processor that has lasted seven years so far, and it's fine; but it doesn't feel as powerful as the Ovatio Duo did, and I wouldn't use it for even a small amount of bread dough. I don't know if I'll replace it when it eventually gives up; I might use a larger, more powerful one more often, but they tend to be very highly priced, and most functions can be done by other appliances.