You'll love these juicy meat pastries like you love any pie or pastie. You can use other meat for this recipe - if it's not mince, make sure it is cut into tiny pieces.
My mom is from Peru and she makes empandas from a very similar recipe. This recipe gets two thumbs up for its authenticity! The only difference between my mom's empanadas and this recipe is the way you cook the beef. In my mom's recipe the beef is fried with all of the seasonings and onions. It is then drained of its excess fat. 80% lean works best because it prevents the meat from getting dried out when baking. I grew up eating beef empanadas and they are great! I think condiments really add something to the empandas; we always ate them with either lemon squeezed over them which works really well with the sweetness of the raisins and the spicyness of the paprika. The second option was to pour a few shakes of hotsauce to into your empanada. Cayenne peppersauce is excellent on an empanada! - 13 Dec 2004 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
Go to the frozen foods and get the Goya or Saltano brand of empanada dough. You won't get an authentic empanada with puff pastry. You can fills these with veggies, chicken, ham and cheese (sprinkle oregano for an authentic Argentine flavor). In Argentina they use different patterns in the crust edges to distinguish the type of empanda that you are eating. In my opinion the raisins are a more Chilean style and my husband's family, nor our friends include them, but I'm sure this varies from family to family. - 05 Mar 2008 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
I only made the filling from this recipe (made my own empanada dough from scratch)and it was great! Very authentic tasting! I am only giving it 4 stars instead of 5, because traditional Argentinean empanadas are made with dough and not puff pastry. Also, you can simply saute the beef before using...no need to make it more complicated by using a sieve. It ends up tasting the same. Give this one a try!! - 24 Dec 2007 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)