Tamales

I had an urge to eat tamales the other day, so I made some.  I didn't actually know what went into a tamale, but I did know that I didn't have any corn husks, so I'd have to use an alternative.  I went with waxed paper, and that worked acceptably well.  I also didn't know what to put in the dough, but figured I couldn't go too wrong if I made tortillas, filled them, and steamed them.  The end result was delicious, and I highly recommend to anyone that they try this butchered version of tamales.  

First things first, I made the tortilla dough.  1C masa to 2/3C water, plus a splash of olive oil for good measure, and ~1/2tsp salt.  This made a nice dough, and I divided it into eight pieces.  I rolled out each piece, or smooshed it out with my hands more like it, and put in the filling.  Then I rolled it shut, sort of pinching it where necessary to close the holes, wrapped it in wax paper, and twisted the ends shut.

The filling was sort of random - I had some frozen lebanese meatballs that we'd made a while ago, so I thawed some of those as I sweated some onions and toasted garlic, then mashed up the meatballs (which were like half bulgur wheat anyway), and fried with the onions and garlic until the meat was cooked.  I also had some spinach, which I dumped in the pan after the meat with some garlic.  I think you could pretty much use anything for filling, though having some sort of sauce might be nice.  Next time I think I'll do pumpkin or squash, with some goat cheese or feta or something.  

Once my tamales were all wrapped up, I steamed them for 30 minutes.  I didn't really know how long to steam them, but this seemed about right in my head.  They were pretty tasty after that long, though I have no idea how to tell if they're overcooked. 

Once done, I poured some lime-cilantro-tomatillos sauce over the top, and consumed them all in one sitting and with great gusto.  They were filling, and delicious.  

Lime-Cilantro-Tomatillo sauce
Made ~1C sauce
2 tomatillos
juice of 2 limes
~1C cilantro, rinsed
pinch of salt

Put everything into a food processor, and zap until it's made a paste.  Olive oil might also be delicious to smooth things out, but I didn't get that far.