Mad Men Dinner Party, Betty Draper Style

Welcome back to Betty's dinner party. You better be enjoying yourself! For the main course, we're having rosemary seitan "leg of lamb" with mint jelly, and German egg noodles (Spätzle) like Grandma Hofstadt used to make. There is French Burgundy wine and Heineken to drink. And the napkins match the dress Betty will wear for 36+ hours! Try to hand at making vegan lamb and spätzle for your very own Mad Men dinner party.

Around the World Menu

Mixed Drinks

Gazpacho (Spain)
Rumaki (Japan)

Leg of Lamb with Mint Jelly (Dutchess County)
Spätzle (Germany)

Burgundy (France)
Heineken (Holland)

Leg of Lamb with Mint Jelly

Serves 5-6

Ingredients

2 cups gluten flour
2 tablespoons cornmeal
5 teaspoons dried rosemary
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
⅓ cup olive oil
¾ cup red wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
¼ cup lemon juice
6 cloves garlic, grated

Mint jelly

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F, about 10 times warmer than your disposition.
2. Combine gluten flour, cornmeal, dried rosemary, salt, and black pepper in a mixing bowl or stand mixer equipped with a dough hook. Fantasize about taking that dough hook to Don's jugular.
3. Combine olive oil, red wine, soy sauce, lemon juice, and garlic in a separate bowl. Take a break and finish that bottle of wine.
4. Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and mix until a dough forms. Knead until it's as flexible as Don's morals.
5. Coat the dough with olive oil and wrap in foil. Bake at least 1 hour, or until firm. Unwrap for the last 15 minutes of baking.
6. Brush with mint jelly and bake for 10-12 more minutes.
7. Slice and serve with more mint jelly.

Photo credit: AMC

While Mad Men doesn't specify what kind of egg noodles Betty serves, Spätzle fits the bill as a German noodle dish. You could probably use the Vegg or a different egg replacer in the dough, but soy flour was what I had on hand. I served the noodles with caramelized onions, pan-frying the noodles with the onions for a few minutes before plating.

Spätzle

Serves 5

Ingredients

4 cups flour
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ cup soy flour
3 tablespoons oil
1 ½-2 cups water, as needed

Instructions

1. Pour flour in a mixing bowl and stir in the salt. Ruminate on your invisibility and powerlessness, much like the salt.
2. Combine soy flour and oil in a separate bowl and stir until combined. The mixture will be as thick and sludgy as your personality.
3. Add soy flour and oil mixture, as well as 1 ½ cups water, to the flour. Mix until a bread-like dough forms, adding more water if necessary.
4. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Take small pieces of dough and roll into noodles, kind of the size and shape of wax beans.
5. Boil 12-14 noodles at a time and remove when they rise to the top of the water. Transfer cooked noodles to a bowl of cold water.
6. Repeat until all the dough is used. Store noodles in an (unlike Don's excuses) airtight container with water until ready to use.

The evening turns sour when Betty unknowingly participates in Don's market research. Heineken is a Sterling Cooper client and Don insists the target demographic for the beer is a Bryn Mawr alumna turned passive-aggressive housewife with a penchant for exoticism (or something like that). This embarrasses Betty when she walks right into the joke by purchasing the beer. Of course, the problem is not the Heineken incident, but Don's adulterous adultery. Poor Betty.

Photo credit: AMC