Coffee Marinated Steaks

I first heard the idea of coating a big, juicy piece of steak with coffee grounds from my friend Xuchi. We visited her and her husband last weekend and they grilled us two versions of steaks that we've never had: Herbs de Provence crusted steak and these Coffee Steaks. I know coffee steaks sounds unusual, but they were quite delicious. Don't worry if the steaks look a little charred after you start grilling them; this will give your steaks lots of flavor.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

• 1/2 cup coarse ground coffee
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 1/4 cup coarse ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 4 (8 ounce) New York or Rib Eye steaks

To make the dry rub: Place the coffee, salt, pepper and brown sugar in a small bowl and toss gently with a fork to combine. You are probably not going to use the entire rub. Put any leftover rub in a zip-loc bag and store it in the freezer for another time.

Pat steaks dry with paper towels and generously and evenly coat all sides with the coffee rub. About one to two tablespoon per steak. Loosely cover them with plastic wrap and let them marinate for 30 to 60 minutes.

In the meantime, setup your grill. Clean it; lubricate it; heat it to medium-high. Place the steaks on the grill for 2 minutes, then move them a quarter turn, and cook for two more minutes. This will give you great grill marks.

Flip the steaks and grill them on the other side in the same way. This will give you a good medium rare steak, or grill to your preference. Remove steaks from grill and let them rest for 3 minutes before serving.