Fresh, feathery and fragile dill "leaves" or "weed". It's a bit early for it to be available to me in my Central PA garden, but: big, beautiful bunches of it are showing up in my grocery stores. In Eastern European kitchens everywhere, dill, along with chives, mint and/or parsley, are commonly used to flavor all sorts of heritage dishes: fish (like salmon or sturgeon), various soups (notably red or white borscht), many vegetables (especially carrots or potatoes), and, classic dill pickles (or anything that can be pickled). The sweet, subtle flavor of dill is delightful in many of our ethnic vinaigrettes, dressings, sauces, dips and spreads, and, it's even used to make a savory compound "dill butter", which dreamily spreads over or melts into almost anything. Sigh.
While dill is native to Central and Eastern Europe, it's grown all over Scandinavia (Northern Europe) and Eurasia too, where its leaves and seeds are used as an herb or spice in Vietnamese, Korean, Thai, Lao, Arabian, Indian and Iranian cuisines too (to name a few from a long list).
There are many variations to the Eastern European (Russian) sour-creamy dill dressing I am making today, but two things are common to all: Fresh dill is used because the dried herb loses its flavor rapidly, and, the cool and creamy dressing is classically used to dress cucumbers and/or tomatoes freshly-picked from the Summer garden. I drizzle the dressing over the cucumbers or tomatoes at serving time. The common practice is to stir in enough dressing to enrobe them. In my opinion, the common practice alternative, no matter how judicious one is with the dressing, generally renders an over-dressed salad, plus, cucumbers and tomatoes (which lose their textural integrity quickly -- within 10-15 minutes), renders the dressing watery. It's silly to do that.
My way renders perfectly-dressed, pretty-to-look-at cucumber or tomato side-salads.
~Step 1. In a medium bowl, stir together the sour cream, lemon juice, garlic, onion, pepper and salt. Mince the dill and stir it in. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or overnight.
Dollop 2 tablespoons dressing over each 1/2-3/4 cup salad.
Sour Cream and Dill Dressing for Cucumber Salad: Recipe yields 1 cup dressing/enough to dress 8, 1/2-cup side-salads.
Cook's Note: When I've got lots of dill, one of my favorite things to make is ~ Mel's Petite Porketta for Joe's Jessup Sandwiches ~ (pork stuffed w/a mix of dill and garlic. Today's salad(s) are a wonderful accompaniment to them. Get my recipe in Category 2, 3, 10 12 or 17.