Main Course

Pork Tenderloin with a JOLT



The assignment of coffee for September was going to be interesting for me. I don't like the taste of and, therefore, don't drink coffee. I love the smell of it brewing but that's as far as my like of coffee goes. That being the case, I needed to figure out what to do. I went on a mission to see what I could do with coffee that would satisfy me and hopefully satisfy my taste buds. I knew about adding coffee to chocolate to enhance its flavor, but I didn't want to make a dessert since I had made one last month. With my research, I learned cooks were now using coffee in dry rubs and marinades for meat. That idea intrigued me and I decided that was my route - a dry rub for pork tenderloin. I found that most anything was put with the coffee to make a rub, so I was good to go with anything I wanted. I also decided that the pork needed a sauce. That would be an apricot sauce since I LOVE apricots. Jim suggested couscous with coffee being the liquid. I was up for that as well. Here is what I prepared and then my critique:



Port Tenderloin with a JOLT

A 1 to 2 pound pork tenderloin

1/4 cup instant coffee
1 TBSP Hungarian hot paprika
1 TBSP brown sugar
1 TBSP chopped fresh parsley
3/4 TBSP chopped fresh oregano
1/8 tsp Vietnamese cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper



Mix above ingredients and let sit for several hours. Rub entire pork tenderloin with marinade and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 8 hours. Sear on a hot grill. Place meat on the cool side of the grill and continue cooking on indirect heat for 15-20 minutes, turning once. Let rest for 5 minutes. Slice and serve with apricot sauce.



Apricot Sauce
1 - 12 ounce can Solo Apricot filling used for pastries, caskes and desserts
chopped, dried apricots (as much or as little as you would like)
salt - a dash to cut the sweetness a little
water to thin

Heat above ingredients. Place some on a platter, place sliced meat on sauce and drizzle additional sauce over meat.



Couscous
1 cup brewed coffee
3/4 cup whole grain couscous
chopped, fresh mint
toasted, slivered almonds



Bring coffee to a boil. Add couscous. Let sit 5 minutes. Stir with a fork. Add mint and almonds. Stir. Serve with additional fresh mint leaves.



Critique: The meat was incredibly tender and juicy. Due to the amount of instant coffee that was used, Jim thinks it would be good to cut back on the amount of coffee and use decaf. I never thought of the fact it was "high test" instant - which is why we called the recipe "Pork Tenderloin with a JOLT". The instant was concentrated and there was a bit too much used. You definitely needed the apricot sauce to cut the intensity of the rub. The couscous was wonderful. No changes with that at all. Anything else in the couscous would have been too much due to, again, the intensity of the rub on the meat. All in all, everything went together very well. The entire meal was well balanced in flavors. I will tweak the rub a bit with the coffee and go for it again.