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1
Make the rice porridge filling first, as it must cool before use. Combine the short-grain rice and whole milk in a heavy saucepan with the salt. Cook over a low heat, stirring regularly, until the rice has absorbed most of the milk and the mixture is thick but still slightly looser than a finished porridge — it should fall from the spoon in slow, heavy ribbons. Remove from the heat. The filling is intentionally undercooked at this stage; it will finish inside the pastry during baking. Spread onto a tray and leave to cool completely.
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2
Make the munavoi. Pass the hardboiled eggs over the coarse side of a box grater into a bowl containing the softened butter. Add the pinch of salt and work together with a fork until the egg is evenly distributed throughout the butter without the mixture becoming smooth — texture should remain coarse. Set aside at room temperature.
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3
Make the rye pastry. Measure the rye flour and salt into a bowl. Pour the hot water over the flour all at once and mix immediately with a wooden spoon, then bring together by hand into a firm, cohesive dough. The heat gelatinises a portion of the starch; the dough is ready when it is smooth, pliable, and holds together without cracking when pressed — it will feel noticeably more supple than a cold-water rye dough.
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4
Divide the dough into approximately 12 equal pieces. On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece to an oval roughly 2 mm thick — or thinner if possible. The rye sheet should be so thin that the filling is faintly visible through it when held briefly toward light. Thick dough will dominate the delicate rice filling and the pastry will be tough rather than crisp.
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5
Place a generous spoonful of the cooled rice porridge along the centre of each oval, leaving a border of approximately 1.5 cm on all sides. Fold both long edges up and over the filling simultaneously, pinching them together firmly with the fingers to create the characteristic crimped border. Press with conviction — loose crimping opens in the oven and the filling spills. Rest the filled, unbaked pasties on a floured surface for 10 minutes before baking.
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6
Heat the oven to its highest setting — typically 250–275 °C on a domestic oven. Bake the pasties on a floured or lined tray until the rye pastry is golden and the rice filling has developed a pale golden skin across its surface, with the edges of the filling beginning to bubble. The pastry should be crisp but not dark brown; overbaking beyond this point renders the rye tough.
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7
Remove the pasties from the oven and brush immediately and generously with the melted salted butter while still hot. The pastry absorbs the butter rapidly and becomes supple rather than hard and cracker-like. Serve warm, with the munavoi applied to each pasty at the table immediately before eating.