A couple of weeks ago Euro Pro invited me to New York to check out a new product they were introducing, the Ninja Master Prep. I figured hey, if they’re picking up the tab, I’ll come take a look.
Boy am I glad I did. Sure, checking out Times Square at night was cool … although I’ve seen it on TV so many times it wasn’t that much of a revelation. But what I’m talking about is the new toy I got.
Now before you get all, “Dude, Grandma didn’t use a food processor,” let me tell you about Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Back before Keanu Reeves was known as a … as a serious … serious actor … BWAAAAA-hahahaha!
Okay, sorry, I couldn’t type that with a straight face.
Where was I? Oh, right … Before Keanu Reeves was famous, he appeared as Ted “Theodore” Logan, a Southern California slacker teen in one of the iconic movies of the 1980s. He and his best friend Bill S. Preston, Esquire, travel back in time to kidnap historical dead dudes for their history report.
When they turn the historical dudes loose in the mall, Beeth-oven finds his way to the music store, where he sits in front of a rack of keyboards and rocks the hell out. (Stick with me, this is where I get back to Grandma and the Ninja.)
Now, some people think that Beethoven’s music is best when performed on period instruments. The theory is that those are the instruments he composed for. And that’s true, but you can also look at it this way: Beethoven composed on the most modern instruments available to him. If he’d had a synthesizer, you can bet he’d have used it.
That’s what I tell myself when I use the new food processor. Grandma never used this because it didn’t exist. But if it had been available, you can bet she’d have wanted it.
So what’s so great about this thing anyway? The big difference you notice right away is the motor sits on top instead of underneath. So you can use one motor for two different sized choppers. It also means the containers are watertight, so you can snap a lid on and put them right in the fridge after you make whatever you’re making.
What’s less obvious, but is the real treat here, is that there are two sets of blades in it instead of just one. The typical single blade is either too high, and you can’t chop less than a cup or so of whatever you’ve got; or it’s too low, so the bottom gets pureed while the top is still chunky.
But check out how little garlic I tossed into this. Most food processors wouldn’t even be useful for this little bit.
But two quick pulses and it was all evenly minced. Notice how low that bottom blade sits.
Here’s what I had after about five seconds worth of chopping. I don’t think I’ll be doing garlic by hand any more.
Next up was a little experiment. Someone asked at the product launch if you could do mozzarella cheese. That’s a big challenge for most processors. Mozzarella is so soft it usually gets gummed up. They said it would work, though, so I tried it with muenster.
Any time you’re trying to shred a soft cheese, it’s best to start with it pretty cold, which I did. And this was sliced muenster, that I broke into smaller pieces so it would fit in easily. So did it work? You betcha.
Three or four quick pulses and I had shredded muenster. I don’t think I’ve ever seen shredded muenster before.
And that’s the Ninja Master Prep, the first product I’ve ever used that seems to be at least 80% as good as the infomercial makes it look.
Tomorrow I’ll put together the garlic and muenster from this post, with the tortilla chips from yesterday, plus a couple more things for some amazing seafood nachos. Remember to subscribe to make sure you don’t miss it.
