Coffee crusted pork tenderloins with red eye BBQ sauce,

Since I have not cooked in a couple of days I wanted to grab something from the past and keep my momentum.

This one is straight out of one of my favorite cookbooks BBQ USA: 425 Fiery Recipes from All Across America This is another one of those cookbooks I have used many times and it never fails. If you want to look like you know what you are doing around the grill this is the place to start.

First a bit about dry rubs. If I were a better man I would make up 3-4 of my favorite rubs is large quantities and keep them around.  Sadly I am not that man, yet. However I have at least 2-3 rubs I can make off the top of my head that will cover most needs so I guess I will be content with that for the time being.
Many of the more common rubs you find in a store will start with the same base of salt, pepper, brown sugar and paprika. from there you can shift the flavors around to suit the meal you are making. Add some cumin, coriander, cayenne and cinnamon and you have great rub for lamb, add some cardamom pods to that and you have more of an Indian flair. Add some granulated garlic, ginger and some lemon peel and you have a nice rub for fish. Really just go crazy, it's tough to blow a rub. One additional note when you are changing around your flavors to add more heat or more of a different flavor profile don't add more salt until after you have tasted it. Since salt is such a key ingredient in many rubs, if you add more rub to get more heat you wind up with more of everything. You are better off just adding some more cayenne or chilies than adding more of your rub.

On to the recipe.
You can and should make this up the night before. At the very least your pork should sit in the rub 4-12 hours, longer won't hurt. You need
Ingredients
2-3 pork tenderloins
3 Tbsp of fresh ground coffee
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp dark brown sugar (if you only have light that is fine)
2 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tbsp canola or other neutral oil

Trim the pork tenderloins and set aside.  For more on trimming pork tenderloins watch this handy video and set aside.

Next mix all the remaining dry ingredients in a bowl and stir together well, you can use a whisk but I like to use my hands (best tool in the kitchen so they say)

Next rub your Rub all over the tenderloins and then drizzle the oil onto them, this will help everything stick. Put the tenderloins in a plastic bag, cake pan or my favorite the Tupperware Season-Serve Marinating Container
Seriously if you don't have one of these you should. I use mine constantly, there are days I wish I had two.

Let it sit over night and pull it from the fridge 1/2  an hour before you are ready to grill so it is not cold going on the hot grill. It will stick less. Rubbing your grill grates with some oil helps too.

Preheat your grill to high then reduce the heat to medium/medium high  cook the tenderloins 3-4 minutes per side (12-16 minutes overall) to an internal temperature of 160. Do we need to have a chat about cooking to temperature rather than time? If you don't have an instant read thermometer at a minimum, then send me a message, I will happily spend the time to convince you to not overcook your food.

Let it rest for for 3-5 minutes then slice and serve.

Trust me on this, the pork itself is absolutely amazing and does not need a sauce as long as you have not cooked it dry. However the Red Eye BBQ sauce recipe below is pure awesome.

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp butter
1 slice bacon finely chopped
1/2 medium onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic minced
3/4 cup strongly brewed coffee or espresso
3/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
2 Tbsp molasses
2 Tbsp brown sugar
kosher salt and pepper

Melt the butter then add the bacon, onion and garlic and saute until slightly brown (3 minutes or so)
Add the coffee, ketchup, Worcestershire, cream, mustard, molasses and brown sugar. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until it thickens up, about 10 minutes, whisking occasionally. Taste it  and add salt and pepper as needed.

You can serve it fresh or make it up well ahead of time. You best bet is to make it with your breakfast the day before or the day you are going to cook your pork. You already have the coffee and bacon out anyway. ( it does not suck on eggs)

The richness of the sauce and the coffee in both dishes acts as a great bridge for the flavors in both and the sauce really brings the pork up to another level.

This is a beer dish all the way, a good porter or scotch ale would be a winner. A nice pinot noir would also work really well,