Chef critique
Tandoori Coho with Tomato Cream
This is an appealing and smartly timed recipe, but a critical tracking error with the sheet pan's contents will ruin the salmon if not fixed.
Score: 6/10
Suggested fixes
- Instruct the cook to salt and cure the salmon on a plate in step 1, then transfer it to the sheet pan in step 8 after the beans have had their initial roasting time.
- Increase the salt in the tomato sauce to 1 1/2 or 2 teaspoons to achieve proper seasoning, and update the total salt quantity in the ingredient list.
- Integrate the olive oil and butter into the paragraph text in step 7 rather than using a bulleted list.
Issues
- high / cookability: In step 1, the salmon is placed on the sheet pan, but in step 6, the beans are roasted on the pan for 8 minutes before step 8 says to "return the sheet pan with the coated salmon to the oven" for another 8-10 minutes. The instructions do not specify removing the salmon, which means it would cook for 16-18 minutes at 450°F and severely overcook.
- medium / flavor: The tomato cream sauce contains 18 ounces of vegetables (onions and tomatoes) plus heavy cream, but is seasoned with only 1/2 teaspoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt (about 1.4 grams). This is well below the 1% salinity starting point (about 5.7 grams or 2 teaspoons) and will leave the sauce significantly underseasoned.
- low / clarity: Step 7 uses a bulleted list for only two ingredients (olive oil and unsalted butter), violating the rule to reserve bulleted lists for mixtures of more than three ingredients.
Strengths
- Smart use of concurrent cooking time, allowing the salmon to cure and vegetables to be prepped efficiently.
- Precise quantities are provided in the prose when ingredients are first introduced.
- The 125°F pull temperature for the salmon perfectly matches the ideal chef-recommended doneness for the fish.