Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

3 c. fresh mint leaves (not stems), rinsed, drained, packed
1 c. milk
2 c. heavy cream, divided
2/3 c. sugar
Pinch of salt
6 egg yolks
6 oz. semisweet chocolate or dark chocolate, finely chopped (keep in freezer until used)

Put mint leaves in a heavy saucepan with milk and 1 c. cream. Heat until just steaming (do not boil), remove from heat, cover, and let stand 30 minutes. Reheat mixture until steaming, remove from heat and let stand 15 more minutes.

While mint is infusing, prepare remaining cream over an ice bath. Pour remaining cream into a medium size metal bowl, set in ice water (with lots of ice) over a larger bowl. Set a mesh strainer on top of the bowls. Set aside.

Strain mint mixture into a bowl, pressing against mint leaves with a rubber spatula in the sieve to get most of the liquid out of them. Return mint mixture to saucepan. Add sugar and salt. Heat until just steaming again, stirring until sugar has dissolved.

Whisk egg yolks in a medium bowl. Slowly pour heated milk cream mixture into egg yolks, whisking constantly so that egg yolks are tempered by the warm mixture, but not cooked by it. Scrape warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Return saucepan to stove, stirring mixture constantly over medium heat with a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom as you stir, until mixture thickens and coats the spoon so that you can run your finger across the coating and have the coating not run. This can take about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Pour custard through strainer (from step 2) and stir into cold cream to stop the cooking. Chill mixture thoroughly in refrigerator (at least a couple of hours) or stir mixture in bowl placed over ice bath until thoroughly chilled (20 minutes or so). Freeze mixture in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

Once the ice cream has been processed in the ice cream maker it should be pretty soft. Gently fold in finely chopped chocolate. Put in an airtight container and place in freezer for at least an hour, preferably several hours. If it has been frozen for more than a day, you may need to let sit at room temperature for a few minutes to soften before serving.

Note that there is no alcohol in this recipe. A few tsp. of some spirits such as rum or bourbon will help keep ice cream soft over several days. Even the alcohol in vanilla extract will help. If you have no added alcohol in a homemade ice cream recipe, it is recommended that you eat it up quickly, in a day or two; beyond that point the ice cream will quickly get very very hard.

Makes 1 quart.