A travel-inspired cocktail: Rhubarb and Rye

Rye whiskey, Aperol and orange bitters combine with a simple rhubarb purée to create a tart, refreshing summer cocktail. Recipes below.

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]O[/su_dropcap]ur most recent road trip took us up through Wisconsin and Minnesota and up to the northern shore of Lake Superior. This was the first time we’d visited many of these places, and we loved it.

For some reasons that I do not understand, I always feel at home in those latitudes. Everything seems totally right. And Northern Minnesota, like northern Michigan and vast stretches of the Maritimes, has that feel for me—boreal forest, flat cattail marshes, big stretches of water, night skies full of stars. The land has a particular look.

But to our surprise, pretty much the moment when we crossed the border into Canada, the land changed: the boreal forest became intermixed with rugged, huge tablelands. It was quite a shock, really—to the east, the enormous lake, to the west, the thick forests and marshes, and then, here and there, these huge mesas jutting up… really, there is nowhere else like the Lakehead.

One of our most incredible moments was at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, which is about an hour or so east of Thunder Bay. We had made our way up to a lookout on the Giant itself, 100 meters above Lake Superior. It was a warm, still, clear day. The calm sparkling deep blue lake was almost straight below us. We could see miles of coastline very far across the water, even Thunder Bay itself. We were just standing there, looking at it all, at the calm water and the coastline, and watching ten or fifteen loons calling to each other. Then a bald eagle slowly flew past us, left to right, ignoring us totally.  Because of our vantage point, it was actually below us. I’ll never have a day like that one again.

That night, we had dinner at Bight Restaurant & Bar, a little place on the waterfront in Thunder Bay. This simple drink is a riff on the house signature cocktail there. To make this, you start by cooking up a rhubarb purée. It thickens the drink, giving it a luxurious mouthfeel much like egg white does.

The recipe makes a huge amount of rhubarb purée—more than two cups. See Kitchen Notes for additional uses for it. Or make this cocktail many times—there is no wrong answer here.

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Rhubarb and Rye

Rye whiskey, Aperol and orangebitters combine with a simple rhubarb purée to create a tart, refreshing summer cocktail.

Course Drinks

Servings 2 cocktails

Ingredients

For the Rhubarb Purée (makes 2+ cups):

• 1 pound rhubarb stalks
• scant 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup water

For the cocktail:

• 1-1/2 ounces rye whiskey (see Kitchen Notes)
• 1-1/2 ounces rhubarb purée
• 1/2 ounce Aperol
• 2 dashes orange bitters

Instructions

• Make the rhubarb purée. Cut the rhubarb stalks into 1/2 inch pieces. Put in a pan—I used a large heavy-bottomed skillet so everything would be in one layer. Add the sugar and the water. Turn on moderate heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Then let everything simmer, stirring now and then, until the rhubarb is totally soft—about 10 or 15 minutes. Don't worry that you're using so little water. Rhubarb stalks (technically they are petioles) already contain a lot of water, which they'll add to the mix.
• Taste and make sure it is sweet enough and not too puckery—adjust if you need to.
• Let it cool for a bit, then run it around in the blender or food processor until it is smooth. Chill in the fridge until ready to use.
• Make the cocktail. Put all ingredients in a shaker with ice, seal tight and shake for 15 to20 seconds. Pour into 2 ice-filled coupes or rocks glasses and serve.

Kitchen Notes

The booze. Use any good quality rye. The rye we used is High West Double Rye! The exclamation point is part of the name!

Seasonal, but not a fruit. Rhubarb is a vegetable—the stalks of a perennial plant. We're nearing the end of its season, but we were able to find it at Whole Foods.

Purée without strain. Many recipes call for passing the purée through a sieve after processing it. I did this, but really there was no need—the blender had blended away any fibers. The purée just fell through the sieve without event.

So much purée! This makes way, way more purée than you will need for a few cocktails, unless you are having a party, and I hope you are! It is terrific on plain yogurt, on hot cereal or ice cream. Spoon it over a wedge of cheesecake or some sliced strawberries. You can also make a nice nonalcoholic drink with it—spoon 3 or 4 tablespoons of rhubarb purée into a highball glass, top with club soda, gently stir just a bit (you want to preserve that nice thickness at the bottom of the glass), and garnish with an orange slice. And, if you like, a mint leaf.

Or make less purée. Alternatively, if you don’t feel like having two or so cups of rhubarb puree hanging around, you can just make less. The rule of thumb is to weigh the rhubarb and then use about 1/3 that weight of sugar. Use a small saucepan and not much water—just enough to dissolve the sugar. Again, rhubarb stalks will add their own liquid.