When You Can't Sleep, Cook

Daylight savings always throws my mind and body for a loop.  I either wake up earlier or late depending on the season, it's like I have jumped time zones just by laying in bed.  Anyway, whenever I am unsettled--which is often--I head to the kitchen to work out my thoughts.  Our kitchen is small and intimate, think home kitchen with a high powered dishwasher which you cannot wash any china in because it is gold plated Versace.  That is another story, too long to tell now.  Back to puttering in the kitchen, a fine pastime at five thirty in the morning.  I truly enjoy working with ingredients, though I do not always know what direction the ingredient will take me.  My approach is strongly guided by the principles of improvisational theater.  Not every restaurant is able to work in this manner, though our welcoming setting allows for this small theater approach to food.  Did I accomplish anything on this early morning?  Why yes I did.  Still looking to get the most out of ingredients I became focused on simple.  We had some Key West Pink shrimp with their heads on as a starting point.  We simmered the heads in a shot of espresso and generated an extraction which we seasoned with Crystal hot sauce and soy sauce.  We used the essence of shrimp--a quick red eye gravy-- to flavor whole milk yogurt.  At this point we were nearly done.  I roasted some cucumber in butter and found our squash relish in the pantry to round out the flavors.  A few leaves of anise hyssop completed the dish.