AlwaysPartying: Loving the L.E.O.

Jeff Zalaznick — June 03, 2009

It’s National Egg Day today. Yay. So let’s celebrate it with a classic New York staple: The L.E.O. (For the totally uninformed, this stands for lox, eggs, and onions.) At this point in time, it should probably be called a N.E.O (with Nova), since lox is really too salty to use in the dish, but for the sake of history, and the ability to call my favorite breakfast and my uncle by the same name, let’s stick with L.E.O. Now, in my opinion there is only one restaurant that makes an acceptable L.E.O., and it is the finest in class. This is Barney Greengrass, and there is no reason to ever discuss any other restaurant when it comes to this topic. A N.E.O, sliced tomatoes, sturgeon and bagel. It’s a Molotov cocktail, baby. It could kill you it is so good.

Since there is only one place worth eating it out, the best thing to do is make it yourself. The guidance I’m going to give you below will be extremely helpful in your quest to achieve the ideal L.E.O.

Everyone seems to agree on the “E.” It’s the “L“ and “O“ of the litigious L.E.O., where AlwaysHungry’s expertise will come in handy.

L The Lox. Source your product well. I suggest the salmon of my favorite salmon purveyor, Russ & Daughters. Note this well: do not overcook your protein!

E The Eggs. They must be scrambled and fluffy.

O As for the Onions, sweet ones, like Vidalias are your best bet (a mixture of sweet onions and shallots is ideal).

Other Sourcing This meal normally implies an appetizing feast that includes bagels and Whitefish Salad. To have only the best components, get your bagels from H&H Bagels, your Whitefish Salad from Sable’s or Eli’s and your sturgeon from Barney Greengrass.

In my day, I have been privy to the traditions of many different schools of the L.E.O, and, at this point, I feel comfortable sharing some secrets that will help you make the perfect one. Let’s get down to business.

For the sake of textural intrigue, some of the onion should be chopped, while the rest can be thinly sliced on a mandoline. The onions must be carefully slow-cooked in schmaltz for about thirty minutes, over extremely low heat, until they are evenly caramelized and then finished with some butter. Once the onions are caramelized, add the scrambled eggs and salt and pepper to taste. A small amount of additional butter can be added at this stage as well.

The smoked salmon must not be cooked through, but shouldn’t be served cold either. After arduous efforts expended at perfecting this dish, I finally found the solution. While it is traditional to rip up your lox and drop the pieces in the pan as you cook your Egg and Onion mixture, this almost always leads to overcooked salmon. To combat this, the lox should be brought to room temperature out of the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes, and instead of cooking the fish with the other ingredients, rest the cooked eggs and onions off the heat, and then hand rip pieces of salty Western Nova over the warm pan. After a quick toss, remove the mixture to a serving platter. The power move final step is to take a higher quality cut of salmon, something like a Balik (a milder smoked salmon, again, available at Russ & Daughters) and cover the mixture with a complete layer of thin slices so that the residual heat slightly steams it without rendering it a muddy, pink mess.

Ideally, a “special garnish“ should accompany the finished product: a chopped mixture of shallot, tomato, and capers, mixed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. A few slices of heirloom tomatoes, sliced red onion, a toasted bagel, and cream cheese are optional. For the perfect L.E.O. bites, build an open-faced L.E.O. sandwich on a bagel from the bottom up with layers of:

1) Cream Cheese, L.E.O., and Sturgeon

OR

2) Bagel, WhiteFish Salad, and L.E.O.

But at the end of the day the L.E.O. stands alone. And it’s best that way…

The L.E.O. has become one of those dividing culinary forces: cult-like followers on one side, disgusted abstainers on the other. An unforgivably bad L.E.O. is the dividing force—like one batch of awful sushi, it can turn you off forever. So proceed directly but with caution, making sure to follow AlwaysHungry’s lead to the L.E.O. promised land. Remember, to perfectly execute a do-it-yourself L.E.O. a la AlwaysHungry, make sure you use quality ingredients. I can’t stress this enough.