Luxuries - Fresh herbs

     I'm sure that after last week's post you were certain that I was finished with herbs.  Sorry, but not quite.  We're close to being done with them, though.  I promise.  The only reason I'm writing a separate entry about fresh herbs is because I can't count how many recipes I've seen that say "fresh thyme" or the like, and for a long time, I didn't know when it was okay to substitute dry spices or, for that matter, how you did it.
     The issue with the dried herbs that are far preferred by most people because of their longevity is that, once you remove all the water out of an herb, it's flavor becomes incredibly enhanced.  I don't really know why that is, but it's true.  If you ever get a chance to chew on a single leaf of fresh rosemary then on a single leaf of dried rosemary, you'll see that the flavor is much more intense in the dried version.  For that reason, you can't substitute 1 tsp of dried thyme for 1 tsp of fresh thyme or you'll have a dish that people say, "Wow, that's a lot of thyme!" about.  By the way, if you have people in your house that can identify thyme, I'm really impressed.
     There are also situations that you just can't substitute the dried version for the fresh version.  For example, bruschetta, a tomato-basil topping to bread, would taste awful if you sprinkled dried basil over it.  That's because you'd just get hard flakes in parts and it would be too strong.
     That being said, if you're lucky enough to have an herb garden, or at least a couple of herbs growing fresh, you can always substitute fresh for dried.  Always.  Even though they're less intense, there's no reason to not use them because your recipe asks for dried oregano.
     Here are the four rules of dried-fresh substitution:

When to leave it fresh
     Like I just mentioned, there are dishes you can't substitute dried for fresh.  These are dishes that the herbs will not be cooked and softened in the process.  With the exception of powdered sage and/or garlic, uncooked dishes require fresh herbs.  They lend a light crispness to the dish that, for some reason, tastes like summer.  That's why we serve fresh vegetables in the summer, because they're so refreshing.  For raw salads, toppings,  and decoration, fresh herbs are the only way to go.

When to substitute
     When you're making pretty much any cooked dish, you can straight up substitute dried herbs for fresh herbs.  That's because, in a cooked dish, any herb, dried or fresh, is going to have its flavor leeched out and spread through the whole dish.  When you have a recipe calling for fresh herbs and you only have dried, use half of the amount that the recipe calls for.  For example, if your recipe says "1 tsp fresh thyme" put in 1/2 tsp dried thyme.  This rule goes in reverse for people who have fresh herbs on hand.  Double the amount in the recipe, if it's asking for dried.  So your 1 tsp of dried oregano becomes 2 tsp of fresh oregano.  If your recipe doesn't specify fresh or dried, I always assume dried.  It's worked so far.

When to rehydrate
     This is the in between stage of substitution and leaving the herbs fresh.  In the rare case that you have a dish that you know you need a softer herb, but it isn't necessarily fresh, you can rehydrate the herbs.  Like I said before, use half the amount in the recipe and put your herbs in water or oil for at least 30 minutes before you use them.  Whether you use water or oil is dependent on the recipe.
     For example, I make an herbed pasta that requires me to cook herbs in oil then toss pasta in it.   I know that the pasta tastes tons better with fresh herbs, but I just can't go buy 6 types of fresh herbs every time I make it.  That's because I always waste a lot, and I haven't been able to grow herbs successfully in the dry heat of Arizona.  So, before I make it, I put all my herbs in the olive oil in which I will cook them and leave them for an hour.  The oil softens the herbs and absorbs some of their flavor before I throw everything in the pan.  I wouldn't use water for this because water and oil don't get along well.
     Another great example would be making a dip.  If you wanted to make a dill dip, you might soak your dill in some water to soften up the herb before adding it to the sour cream.  In this case, you would want to pour your water and dill through a fine mesh sieve to get rid of the water before adding it to the sour cream.

When to make tea
     I realize that seems like a weird option here, but it's not really.  See, there are a few times that I want the herb, but I don't want to see the leaves in what I'm making because they'd just create a patch that was really strong, and I want my dishes to have a even flavor throughout.  In these cases, I use a liquid ingredient in the recipe, heat it up, and put my herbs, fresh or dried, into it.  Then I leave it for 30 to 45 minutes.
     While it sits, the herb does the same thing a tea bag does, releases its flavor into the liquid.  Then I put a sieve over my dish and pour my liquid directly into the dish while removing the leaves.  The result is a beautifully soft, even flavor that resonates with the dish.
     The most common place I do this is in rosemary mashed potatoes.  No one likes lumps in their potatoes, and they like leaves of rosemary even less, especially when one goes down the wrong way.  However, almost everyone loves rosemary mashed potatoes.  When I'm getting ready to mash my potatoes, I heat the cream I'm going to use and put a couple of pinches of rosemary into it.  Then I leave it while I get the potatoes mashed up.  Once it's sat there for a while, I pour the cream, now infused with the rosemary flavor, into the potatoes.  This makes the whole dish resonate with rosemary and makes it scrumptious.
      You can do this with fudge to infuse a flavor into the dish or with water to put into a soup.  It's also worth mentioning that this is the only way to get flavor out of saffron.