La Pequeña Mac and Chis

Since I started at Natural Gourmet I've been hearing about the raw dairy club that delivers there. I finally decided to sign up after reading Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine by Dr. Ron Schmid. It seems simple and obvious that heating milk to pasteurize it kills enzymes and nutritional value but in our culture the mere mention of raw milk causes cringes and seems to evoke real fear. But people, when you have to cart the milk thousands of miles and store it for almost a month (or in the case of that crap in a box years?) of course you need it to be stable and of course you'll compromise on nutrients. And there is lots of evidence that raw dairy is beneficial for you both nutritionally and healthfully. A good resource on this is the Weston Price Foundation and the campaign for real milk.

So with that, I've begun to buy cheese made with raw milk as much as possible (not that difficult) and signed up with the raw dairy club (email me if you want more info) to get the best quality and value I can find. Today was my first delivery so in celebration, I made:

La Pequeña Mac and Chis

Although I used raw dairy in this recipe and it really did seem exceptionally delicious, you can certainly make this recipe with organic dairy, I'd suggest you give up dairy produced in factory farms.

Ingredients:

• sea salt
• pound elbow macaroni
• 4 cups raw unpasteurized milk
• 3 cloves garlic, half roughly chopped, half minced and divided
• 5 tablespoons raw cultured unsalted butter
• 1/2 a medium sized onion, finely diced
  
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose organic flour
• 4 cups shredded raw Cheddar
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Cayenne pepper
• half cup raw milk Manchego
  
• 3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
• 2 teaspoons oregano

Directions: Bring a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.
Add the macaroni and cook for 8 to 9 minutes, until al dente. Drain.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
In a small saucepan heat the milk with the roughly chopped garlic.
Melt the butter in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat, sweat the onions and minced garlic.
Whisk in the flour and cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly, to keep lumps from forming.
Strain the garlic out of the milk and whisk it into the butter and flour mixture.
Continue to whisk vigorously, and cook until the mixture is nice and smooth.
Stir in the 4 cups of the cheese and continue to cook and stir to melt the cheese.
Season with salt, pepper and cayenne. In a small saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter, add the breadcrumbs and oregano.
Add the cooked macaroni and fold that all in to coat the macaroni with the cheese mixture.
Scrape into a 3-quart baking dish and sprinkle with the Manchego and follow with the breadcrumb mixture.
Bake for 30 minutes**, or until hot and bubbly.
Let rest 5 minutes and serve.

**while it's baking eat a VERY FRESH SALAD!