Alaea Hawaiian Bloody Mary

Reprinted with permission from Salted: A Manifesto on the World’s Most Essential Mineral, with Recipes by Mark Bitterman, copyright © 2010. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.

• Servings: one.

This recipe is from Salted: A Manifesto On The World's Most Essential Mineral, With Recipes, by Mark Bitterman.  In the headnote to this cocktail recipe he writes:

"Life is so important.  There is something you really need to say.  But the high voltage coil of iron-rich Alaea Hawaiian salt riming the Bloody Mary glass at your finger draws you like an electromagnet.  The first sip trips the circuit and sends the electrical charge through your body, electrifying your nervous system, vibrating your body, rebooting the brain stem.  The surge of spicy tomato juice, tangy citrus, and vaporizing horseradish courses through you.  A nibble at the turgid stalk of celery returns things to right, but by now you are far away, refreshed, restored, forgetting what it was you wanted to say."

Tip:  Celery bitters can be purchased at TheMeadow.net and other specialty merchants that sell ingredients for cocktails.

Ingredients

• Fine Alaea Hawaiian salt
• Juice of 1/4 lemon
• 2 ounces vodka
• 2 dashes celery bitters
• 6 drops clam juice
• 6 drops Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon horseradish
• 3 to 6 drops Tabasco sauce
• 3 grinds coarsely ground black pepper
• 3 ounces unsalted tomato juice
• 1 long, fine celery stalk, leaves still attached, for garnish

Directions

1. Put a three-finger pinch of Alaea salt on a flat plate.
2. Wet the edge of a tall highball glass with the squeezed-out lemon rind. Place the glass upside down on the plate to rim it with salt.
3. Combine the lemon juice, vodka, bitters, clam juice, Worcestershire, horseradish, Tabasco, pepper, tomato juice, and 1 two-finger pinch Alaea salt in a shaker over ice. Stir thoroughly for 5 seconds, pour the liquid and ice into the glass, and garnish with the celery.