“Darlington liked to say that dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ninth House
College may be the marketed as “best four years of your life,” but it’s also one of the most stressful. Living on your own for the first time, trying to figure out who you are away from home, managing classes, working and a social life — it can all be exhausting.
Now add ghosts, secret societies, demons and murder into the mix, and you’ve got Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo.
Such spookiness deserves comfort food, especially when it’s cold out. According to Darlington, one of the characters in the novel, the most fortifying soup after you’ve been mingling with ghosts is avgolemono. This Greek chicken and rice soup was perfect as my meal for Week 48’s theme, Grains.
The book
I loved Ninth House. It’s full of ghosts, secret societies, summoning the dead, ritualistic killings, murder mysteries and university politics on top of it all. I’ve never been to Yale or New Haven but Bardugo does an excellent job of putting you right there. Alex Sterne can see “grays,” aka ghosts and as a member of the secret society, Lethe House, it is her job to make sure the grays don’t interfere with the rituals of the other secret societies. But when a townie girl is murdered and her death is tied to Yale’s secret societies, Alex knows something is wrong. If only her mentor, Darlington, was still around. But he mysteriously disappeared, and no one is certain whether he’s dead, gone or just waiting on the other side. I adored all the characters, the cold, dark atmosphere that Bardugo creates, and the multiple twists at the end.
Definitely read Ninth House you’re a fan of ghost stories or dark academia. I can’t wait to read the sequel.
The food
Pamela Dawes, a grad student and a kind of the mother hen to Lethe House, makes a delicious avgolemono that Darlington adores, served alongside salmon sandwiches.
For my version of Darlington’s favorite, I used this recipe from avgolemono from Food and Wine. After making this soup, I can see why he loves it. It’s so comforting, but also low-effort — the perfect kind of meal to make when you are feeling under the weather (or just exhausted from solving murders).
The ingredients are simple: chicken broth or stock, the meat from a whole rotisserie chicken, cooked rice, egg yolks, lemon juice and dill.
First, heat the chicken stock and season it with salt and pepper. Then add the egg yolks, 1/2 cup of rice, lemon juice and a cup of hot stock to a blender and blend until smooth.
Add the puree from the blender back to the rest of the simmering stock on the stove, along with the rest of the rice and all of the chicken. Heat through until warm and thickened, then sprinkle with chopped dill and serve.
To go with the soup, I also made salmon sandwiches with dill cream cheese and cucumbers on marbled rye.
The verdict? I loved this avgolemono. It was creamy without having any cream or milk, and the dill and lemon juice added a great freshness. I had two bowls at dinner, and more of the leftovers the following day. I’m saving the recipe to make again whenever the temperature drops or I’m sick and in need of comfort food.