Crafted for chopping or grinding small amounts of food or spices, the Cuisinart MM-2M Mini Mate Chopper/Grinder can be used by persons who live alone cooking only for themselves. Families who might want to have a supplemental grinder right on their tables instead of bringing the big one from the kitchen would also appreciate the small machine.
Although small, the machine can perform big functions. It chops, grinds, and grates all kinds of food and spices. You can put in celery, cinnamon sticks, garlic, ginger root, herbs, horseradish, nutmegs, nuts, olives, onion, pepper, and peppercorns into it and they will come out either chopped, ground, or grated according to your preferences.
The Mini Mate has a cylindrical body that stands 8 inches. Its bottom section is a large clear Lexan work bowl with a capacity of 9 ounces. It rests on an opaque white base, and constitutes about half of the machine’s body. As it is transparent, you can clearly see if the food inside is properly chopped or ground. The upper half of the chopper/grinder is the housing for the appliance’s motor, and, like the base of the transparent bowl, is also made of white plastic.
Dangling from the motor is a stainless steel shaft that connects to a removable blade assembly. This assembly is designed in a way that the leading edge of the blade can be reversed. One edge of the blade is sharp, while the other is dull. You use the former when cutting celery, garlic, or herbs, while the latter is used for grinding cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, or peppercorn.
Cleaning is basically easy but because the many parts of the Cuisinart MM-2M Mini Mate Chopper/Grinder require disassembly for a thorough cleaning, it may take a little time.