Crossword Genius

Feral apeman and I filled pastry (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

empanada

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'filled pastry' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'feral apeman and i' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
an anagram of 'apeman' is 'empana' which is present in the answer.
'i' could be 'a' and 'a' is present in the answer.
A single letter 'd' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for empanada that I've seen is " South American filled pastry turnover".)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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