Uzbekistan - Shirkovok

Background
Uzbekistan is located in central Asia and has been a territorial football for several thousand years. Its ethnic diversity and location has naturally given it a wide diversity of cuisine. China greatly influenced its cooking, while India was more influential in terms of cooking utensils. I did not expect to find Korean influence, because the countries are over 3,000 miles apart, but a large Korean population was relocated there by Stalin in 1938.
Research for this meal turned out to be easier than I expected. I found a blog dedicated to Uzbek cuisine that listed several breakfast options.
Gu'shtli quymoq is an omelette containing meat, vegetables, and coriander. Tuhum dolma is a hard boiled egg served with cheese and cream cheese. Sutil ugra is a noodle dish with browned onions and milk. Shirguruch is a cream of rice dish. Shirkovok is a pumpkin soup with rice and butter. We were able to find a recipe for Shirkovok in The Art of Uzbek Cooking. We substituted butternut squash for the pumpkins since they are hard to find this time of year.

Pumpkin and Rice Milk Soup (Shirkovok)

• 4 cups water
• 2/3 cup long grain rice
• 1 ½ cups diced pumpkin or butternut squash
• 4 cups milk (NOT skim milk)
• 1 tbsp butter
• Salt

1. Bring the salted water to a boil.
2. Add the rice and pumpkin.
3. Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.
4. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid and drain the rest.
5. Add back the reserved cooking liquid and the milk.
6. Slowly warm over medium heat, taking care to avoid boiling.
7. Salt to taste and add 1 tbsp of butter.
8. Serve with sour cream.

Results and Discussion
This breakfast was a nice and simple. Most of the time is spent cooking the rice which can be done largely unattended. The taste was not anything spectacular but it was wonderful piece of comfort food for a winter morning. The squash gives some substance to what would otherwise be a pretty mushy meal. The milk base and the sour cream gives you lots of richness. The dish is also very white with white garnish—the small flecks of orange are the only real color in the dish.