I love cod. I usually buy it fresh and have some wonderful recipes for cooking it. (See here. And here. And here.) But I've also bought a bag of individually wrapped, frozen cod filets and found they cooked up mushy. I cleaned out the freezer the other day and found three of those filets left, so I let them thaw in the refrigerator (which I hoped would help, instead of cooking from frozen like last time).
Then I dried them off with paper towels as best I could (the moisture seemed unending!). Then I used a recipe from Valentina's Kitchen that sounded delicious to me and mentioned that it could be used with frozen fish as well.
The spice mix used to coat the fish had salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika (click above to see the amounts).
I melted the butter in the skillet. I used a little less butter than the recipe called for because in my smaller skillet, it was going to be like deep frying the fish. :)
After two minutes, I flipped the fish. It looked beautiful!
Next I topped the filets with pats of butter and sprinkled with lemon juice, and then let them cook for three more minutes. Is there anything better than food pan fried sautéed in butter? :)
P.S. Check out those golden, crispy, air-fried tater tots! :)
Have y'all tried working with frozen fish?
www.missytippens.com
I often use frozen salmon fillets, and they always cook up well. I saute them in butter (sounds so much better than pan fried!) or bake them.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I'm hungry for fish. :-)
Jan, I usually buy fresh salmon and then freeze it until ready to use, and it does great. I don't know why these store brand frozen fish turn so mushy. I'm just glad I figured out a better way to cook them!
DeleteMissy, I've done frozen tilapia and catfish. Tilapia usually gets grilled while the catfish is for frying. Salmon I usually buy fresh when it's on sale, then freeze it myself. Honestly, I'm just tickled pink that the Lenten season is upon us because every little Catholic church in Texas will be having a fish fry every Friday until Easter. And let me tell you, when you've got a ton of country cooks, that is some mighty fine eating. ;)
ReplyDeleteMindy, I would love to try that! I love fried fish. :)
DeleteI didn't know they did Lenten fish fries in Texas, Mindy! That's so cool! The Friday fish thing is huge up here and absolutely tremendous in Lent, but how fun to know you've got it there, too!
DeleteMissy, I use individually frozen haddock all the time and I don't have a problem with them being mushy. Maybe it's the quality of the brand? I usually wrap them in parchment and bake, but sometimes I poach them. I love them fried, but I'm off fried food for now.
ReplyDeleteMary Cate, I'll have to try some other brands, then. I'll also have to try parchment. I haven't done that in a long time. Thanks for the suggestion!
DeleteMissy, I think thawing and drying them was a huge plus. I've been known to blot them on paper towels (thereby ruining the planet, of course!) for a long time, and changing the towels to get rid of that excess moisture. I love fish done this way, and I broil it like this, too... which dries it out a little more than the saute pan does... This looks delicious! I sprinkle ours with Cajun seasoning, garlic and salt to give some sass. They did that at Basel's, the restaurant where I waitressed for years, and it was so good... Thank you for posting this!
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