When I was in the Valley I bought a bag of red grapefruit. Then the friend I went to see down there gave me a bag from her backyard. When I got home, some neighbors gave us another bag of little bitty ones. We've got grapefruit coming out of our ears.

So I started drinking grapefruit juice cocktails. I started with the Salty Dog, a grapefruit juice and gin cocktail served in a glass with a salted rim. Then I started putting vodka in them for people who don't like gin. And since I am working on recipes for a new Tex-Mex cookbook, I decided to try it with tequila.

The Texas red grapefruit gives grapefruit juice cocktails a rosy color and a much less sour taste. I served the tequila version to Gustavo "Ask A Mexican" Arellano when he came over for dinner after a book signing he was doing in Houston. He liked the first one well enough so I made him another--and another. I call the Texas red grapefruit-tequila cocktail a Salty Perro Rojo. And it comes with the "Ask a Mexican" seal of approval. Here's the recipe:

Salty Perro Rojo

5 ounces fresh-squeezed Texas red grapefruit juice Jigger of plata tequila Coarse sea salt

Put the salt in a saucer and wet the rim of a highball glass with grapefruit. Salt the glass by dipping the wet rim in the salt. Fill the salted glass with ice. Add the tequila, then the juice.

-Robb Walsh