An Amateur's Adventure in the Kitchen: Red wine (Syrah) Flank Steak stuffed with Fontina Cheese and Basil

Was watching Boy Meets Grill and decided to try this dish by Bobby Flay. I bought some flank steak while I was at Costco yesterday so I figured Sunday night would be a good night to experiment. Luigi whom I haven't seen for awhile came by, plus Raf, and L'Erhan.

Flank steak in Syrah wine ($4 - Trader Joe's, wine actually tastes very good) + shallots + black pepper.

Marinate for 3-4 hours. Ummm, purple steak.

Fill with Fontina cheese:

Fresh basil (I used Thai basil)

Fold over and throw it on the grill

While that was grilling - I prepared and served some baked cheeses.

Pre-baked cheeses

My grill sucks - doesn't get hot enough so I ended up grilling it for about 10-15 minutes to get it medium rare to medium. (Btw - I think I finally converted L'Erhan to eat medium rare. Yay! I remember my days of eating well-done. Blasphemous!) After, I let it sit for about 10 minutes to let the juices settle. Then I sliced it.

Voila !

I made a red wine sauce per Bobby Flay with shallots, red wine, and black peppers (and reduced it). It was a little too wine-y for me so I added chicken stock and a little butter. I didn't totally like it by itself, but when I poured it on my meat, it actually tasted quite good.

Want a closer look? The flavors of the meat was something that I never really had before. It was a pleasant and different surprise.

Afterwards, I served some more cheese (I know too much food, need to work on that but I had already prepped this)

The Raclette and Comte cheese were raw. The Raclette really did smell like sweaty jock straps and socks. Pretty gross. Didn't taste as funky as the smell. First cheese I didn't like. Actually, L'Erhan was the only one that loved the cheese. Well, he is French. =) I made him take it home. hah!

I made a cheesecake but it hadn't settled yet. Last minute, we decided to do some semi-sweet chocolate fondue. All I had were some strawberries.

Mid-melting point.