Empanadas? Arepas?

The Venezuelans make these lovely half-moon yellow corn pasties stuffed with delicious seasoned ground beef. My friend from Venezuela calls them empanadas. What we grew up calling arepas were also meat-stuffed, but heftier - larger, more meat, more cornmeal. Arepas, in the south American tradition are corn bread patties, stuffed after they are cooked.

Meat filling
Beef, 1 lb, ground
Garlic, 3 cloves, chopped
Hot pepper, seeds removed, chopped
(Pumpkin, small piece, finely diced; or stalk of celery finely chopped: optional)
Olive oil, 2 tablespoons
Thyme, couple sprigs
Salt, half teaspoon or to taste

Corn paste
Promasa cornmeal, 3 cups
Water, 3 cups (plus tablespoons as needed)
Salt, half teaspoon
Oil for frying.

Cook the meat mixture first and allow to cool. Heat oil, add garlic, pepper and pumpkin or celery if desired. Add meat, salt and thyme and cook until there is no liquids left, but do not burn (medium heat).

Mix the cornmeal with water, and knead to remove all lumps. Add a tablespoon or two of water to make sure the dough is pliable, not too dry and does not crack when flattened. Shape dough into small (egg sized) balls.

Flatten each ball into a circle. Put a spoonful of meat in the middle and fold over into a half circle, pressing the dough to seal in the meat. Deep fry in hot (not smoking) oil, making sure they don't stick together while frying. Drain on paper towels or brown paper.

These were made for lunch, and are a little heftier, but I think there was a little too much water in the dough. This makes all the difference in how well you can form the half-moons.