For ➍4 maatjes herring fillets***
1 apple
lemon juice
200 g green beans
pepper & salt
4 slices bacon
1 onion
10 cl milk**
10 g flour**
1 tbs sour cream
oil**
dill
Clean the herrings. Keep them cool.
Cut the apple into cubes. Mix with a little lemon juice.
Clean the beans and cook them briefly in boiling salted water*. Put in ice-cold water. Drain. Dry on a clean linen cloth.
Grill slices of bacon until crisp without additional fat in the oven. Chop.
Cut the onion into rings. Put the rings (about 8) in the milk, then in the flour, put in boiling oil until crisp. Drain and dry. Sprinkle lightly with fine salt.**
Mix the beans with apple and bacon. Season to taste with oil, salt and pepper. Arrange on a plate.
Place a spoonful of sour cream on the side of the plate. Sprinkle with pepper, and decorate with some dill.
Place the herrings on the beans. Rub the herrings with a finger to make them shine. Put fried onions on top**.
*3-5 m, depending on the size for crisp beans.
**Or use the onion rings raw. Or cube the onion and spread it raw on the fillets.
***Use high quality Swedish pickled herring instead. Their sweet marinade come close to the taste of very young herrings. Drain well in kitchen tissue to avoid messy wetness.
'Maatjes' are young herrings, known as Hollandse Nieuwe, is a typical Dutch delicacy. The raw young herrings, from catches around the end of spring or beginning of summer and the beginning, are eaten with raw onion and a glass of good jenever (Dutch gin). The tradition dates back to 1380 when Willem Beukelsstraat of Biervliet in Zeeland invented a method to cure herring fillets with the enzymes of their own pancreas, called 'kaken'. The method is still used today, but for safety reasons, today all maatjes are frozen to kill germs.
It is also very popular in Belgium, where it is sometimes used for a little more elaborated dishes.
