Recipe: Coolidge cocktail

Dear SOS: Although it’s no longer on the menu at the Hungry Cat in Santa Barbara, my friends from law school and I, in an unusual unanimous opinion, found the Coolidge to be the best cocktail of the summer. We know the ingredients, but we need expert testimony on the proportions and methodology used to prepare it.

Michael J. DeNiro

Santa Barbara

Dear Michael: This cocktail, created at the Hungry Cat in Hollywood by bartender Danielle Motor for actress Jennifer Coolidge, combines interesting ingredients such as chiles and rice wine vinegar, making for a drink that almost has the feel of a deconstructed Bloody Mary. Cheers!

Coolidge cocktail

Total time: 5 minutes

Servings: 1 cocktail

Note: Recipe adapted from the Hungry Cat. Simple syrup is equal parts sugar and water heated until the sugar dissolves to form a syrup.

3 thin slices cucumber, 2 sliced crosswise and 1 sliced lengthwise (like a surfboard), divided

Scant 1 tablespoon minced roasted Fresno chile (peeled and seeded), or to taste

1 1/2 ounces Russian wheat vodka, preferably Egorushka

1 ounce simple syrup

1/2 ounce lemon juice

1/2 ounce rice wine vinegar

In a pint glass or cocktail shaker, muddle together the crosswise-sliced cucumber and chile. Add the vodka, simple syrup, lemon juice and rice wine vinegar. Fill with ice and shake vigorously. Pour the cocktail and ice (without straining) into another pint glass and garnish with the lengthwise-sliced cucumber. Serve immediately.

Each cocktail: 154 calories; 1 gram protein; 15 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 0 fat; 0 cholesterol; 13 grams sugar; 14 mg. sodium.

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