Fish frying help wanted

Usually I'm the one to offer suggestions about foods , but this time I need some help. I recently bought some frozen Cod but it does not deep fry up as usual.
Problem: When thawed out, it has an unusual amount of water frozen into the fish. Really, one heck of a lot of water. Also, the flesh does not act like any Cod I've ever deep fried before. The flesh is not nice and firm, rather soft. Kinda strange.

So, does anyone have any suggestions about how I can use up the Cod and still get a nice DEEP FRIED fish ???

Edit to add. The fish is not filets. It is in CHUNKS, aprox 5 cm X 4 cm X 4 cm

Re: Fish frying help wanted

Hi Bakerman you could turn the cod into fishcakes with a crispy bread crumb coating (pane method/flour/egg breadcrumb) .

Personally I would give the fish to someone's cat, good results can't be expected when inferior ingredients are used .

Re: Fish frying help wanted

Hmm. yes, you may be right.

Re: Fish frying help wanted

Cod doesn't fry well. Best way to cook it IMO is in a shallow pan with mixture of melted garlic butter and water. Kind of poaching it. It falls apart regardless of what you do but the less moving about the better. It is great with a light Bechamel sauce.

Re: Fish frying help wanted

I have been running some experiments on this Cod.
step #1 : Gently squeeze out the excess water with a kitchen towel.
#2: Placed on a platter and chilled in fridge which further dried it out.
#3: Coated with flour, which dried it even further.
#4. After 1/2 hour, dipped in a light batter, and coated a 2nd time with flour.
#4: Deep fried at 360 F (182 C).
#5: placed on a wire rack in a warm oven.

Seems to work better this way, but it is still not quite right yet. What the heck. I've nothing to lose. I still have several kilos of the Cod and I hate to waste food.

PS: I examined the package more carefully and I discovered (in tiny, tiny words) "Caught in USA waters. Processed in China." Hmm. No wonder there is a problem. Had I seen that before, I'd never have bought it.

Re: Fish frying help wanted

Fish and chip shops manage by coating it in batter and deep frying in very hot fat .

Re: Fish frying help wanted

Yes, Muddy. Exactly correct. Deep frying the cod is all that I'm currently interested in.

Re: Fish frying help wanted

I deep fry battered cod in beer batter, always use fresh fish, I have used frozen fish in the past and it tastes bitty and dry... Homemade fish in batter is amazing and out does any fish and chip shop,the batter is light and crispy.

Re: Fish frying help wanted

Pauline, you are very lucky to have ready access to fresh cod. Here in the Mexico/Southern Calif region, fresh fish, of any kind, is hard to come by. I don't recall ever seeing fresh cod here in this area. Decades ago, when I lived in Boston, fresh cod was plentiful. I remember that cod as being firm and faintly sweet. Likely the result of being caught in the frigid waters of the Northern Atlantic.

Re: Fish frying help wanted

It has just occurred to me that I may have had the wrong fish in my mind. I was thinking of the orange smoky Cod. I now suspect that is not what you're talking about. I didn't think fresh Cod. I have never cooked that.