Mixing and matching

A food processor, a blender or small mixer - what do you really need in your kitchen? Charmian Smith takes a look at the huge variety of mixers, processors and blenders on the market.

All you really need for preparing food, they say, is a good knife, a chopping board, a wooden spoon and a bowl, and perhaps a hand-whisk or rotary eggbeater.

However, a good kitchen machine will make baking and preparing food so much quicker and easier.

There's a huge choice, from small electric hand-mixers and stick blenders, through processors and liquidisers and large stand-mixers with various attachments to sophisticated European machines that blend, stir and cook at the same time.

It would be easy to fill a kitchen with shiny gadgets, but most of us don't have the space, let alone the budget, to do so, and unless we are prolific cooks, probably wouldn't use many of them anyway.

So what do you really need?

There are two basic types of food-preparation machine: those that blend and chop, such as food processors and liquidisers, and mixers that whisk, aerate, beat and knead.

Then, at the zenith are machines that do all these and cook and stir as well, including the Thermomix and Kenwood Cooking Chef, which is not yet available in New Zealand.

Julie Feaver, of Total Food Equipment, in Dunedin, says people often look for a mixer or processor but are not really sure what they need.

"They don't realise there's a difference, so I ask what do they want to do - how do they cook, what do they like making and how many they cook for. They may bake a lot, or they may have babies or they might make lots of soups. It seems clear, but not necessarily to the customer," she says.

To get the best use out of them, big machines need to stay on the kitchen bench ready to use.

You're less likely to use them if you have to lift them out of a cupboard first, especially as stand-mixers can weigh up to about 19kg.

Depending on brand, they come in a rainbow of colours, sizes and shapes to match your kitchen decor.

When buying a kitchen machine you really need to think carefully about the way you cook - or would like to cook, and what your family's needs are, as well as your budget and the size of your kitchen.

Then Google the possibilities, or go to a good appliance shop and discuss the numerous possibilities. charmian.smith@odt.co.nz

Stand-mixers

For: Great for bakers.

Against: They are expensive.

Some machines are versatile.

A stand-mixer is invaluable for someone who likes baking as it will whisk, beat and knead well, and you can leave it working while you do something else.

It can also mash potatoes and other cooked vegetables.

A range of speeds allow you to stir gently or whisk or beat very fast.

Top-end ones like the Kitchen Aid or Kenwood have optional attachments that grind or mince food and slice or grate vegetables, as processors do, if not as fast.

Some even have blender and processor attachments, pasta rollers and cutters, grain mills, potato peelers, strainers, juicers and ice-cream makers as optional extras.

If you can afford one and you do a lot of baking, Mrs Feaver recommends a stand-mixer as your main kitchen machine.

However, a good stand-mixer with bowl, beater, whisk and dough hook for yeast doughs will set you back $500 to $1000, even before you start selecting attachments.

Nevertheless, they do last a long time.

My old Kenwood Chef has done sterling service whisking, beating and kneading for nearly 40 years.

I used the blender attachment a lot before I bought a food processor, but only sporadically used the juicer.

Sometimes I get out the mincer when I want a coarser texture than the food processor provides or to make sausages, but I have rarely used the slicer and shredder.

It's much easier to use the food processor for these tasks than to get the bits from the cupboard and assemble the attachments.

Food processors

For: Versatile all-rounder.

Against: Not good for small quantities; don't whisk.

Probably the most useful all-round kitchen machine is the food processor which will chop vegetables and meat, produce a pate or meat or fish-ball mixture in no time, whip up a mayonnaise in a few seconds, whizz nuts or bread into fine crumbs, puree dips and soups and mix many sorts of dough - it's a snip to make your own pastry.

They also have discs for grating or slicing vegetables.

However, food processors are not good with very small quantities unless they have a small bowl attachment.

Nor do they whisk egg whites, whip cream or aerate cake batters as well as a stand-mixer or even an eggbeater, and if you try mashing potatoes in one you'll end up with glue.

They are generally cheaper than big stand-mixers, but in my experience they don't last as long - I'm now on my third processor having bought the first in the mid-1980s shortly after they became available.

Processors range from $130 to $800 or $900, depending on power, quality of blade, bowl and motor, and optional extras such as various-sized bowls, juicers, whisks, blenders or even built-in scales.

It's worth getting as powerful a one as you can afford.