Cilantro and Lime Ice Cream

Place half of the cream in a metal bowl and place over ice. In a medium saucepan, pour remaining cream, milk, sugar, inverted sugar, lime juice, lime zest, and salt. Cook over medium heat until everything melts together. Add fresh cilantro and cook mixture until it just begins to boil. Immediately take off heat and cover for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, strain cilantro mixture through a fine strainer, making sure to press on the cilantro to extract all the flavor (reserve cilantro leaves). Add strained mixture into a blender along with half of the cilantro leaves and blend together. Return mixture to saucepan and reheat on medium low.

In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks. Slowly add heated cilantro cream mixture to eggs, furiously whisking mixture as you add the eggs to prevent the eggs from cooking. Once half of the warmed mixture is mixed with the egg yolks, pour cilantro and egg yolk mixture into saucepan and continue to heat on medium low heat until it thickens enough to cover the back of a spoon and leave a trail when you run a finger through it.

Once you get the proper thickness, strain mixture again, this time into the chilled cream set aside in the ice bath to stop the cooking process. You may see some small curdles of cooked egg, but that is okay as long as you strain the mixture. Stir mixture and wait for it to reach at least room temperature so it is safe to put in the fridge. At that point cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate anywhere from 2 hours to overnight.

Freeze custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Allow to harden in the freezer overnight.

Makes 1 quart.