Homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream is easy to make and well worth the effort. It's a far cry from the artificially green-dyed concoction you buy in the supermarket. This recipe is so good, we served the batch that I made for this article at the Comtesse Therese Bistro, and customers loved it, so I asked Chef Arie Pavlou to put it on the Bistro menu. 

Mint ice cream made from real fresh mint leaves has the most soft, beautiful, pale light green color. I don't put eggs into the mixture, as that turns the base a yellowish color which overshadows the subtle mint green.  

Ingredients (makes 1 quart):

• 1 pint (2 cups) heavy cream
• 1 pint (2 cups) light cream
• 3/4 cup sugar
• mint leaves, cleaned and stripped off the stems, about a cup
• 4 oz. mini chocolate chips - I use Ghirardelli

Heat the cream in a saucepan till almost boiling, then remove from the heat. Stir in the sugar till dissolved. Add the mint leaves, and let the leaves steep until the mixture cools down, a couple of hours. When cool, strain the mint leaves out, then chill overnight.

Put the chilled mixture into an ice cream maker.  After the ice cream is finished, stir in the mini chocolate chips.

Garnish with some mint leaves.

Bon appetit!