The premise is amylopectin retrogradation. Heat a starch to the point where it breaks up and liberates its network of amylopectin. Cool it, and the starch crystallizes in a much stronger structure. Heat it again, or (in the case of, say, potatoes) beat the hell out of them in a blender, and they'll retain their structure; they become somewhat bulletproof.
Retrograded arborio is stable enough that you can dump boiling liquid onto it, stir it, reduce the liquid, and end up with perfect risotto --- rather than carefully tempering the rice with small amounts of slowly stirred liquid. Hence: 7 minute risotto.
It turns out you can also simply hydrate risotto rice (soak it in cold liquid for a couple hours) and do the same thing to it, but it doesn't hold long term the way the retrograded risotto does.
These ideas are due to Ideas in Food, a really amazing blog. The authors have published a couple of books; their first (I think it's just "Ideas In Food") is one of my favorite cooking books.
Retrograded arborio is stable enough that you can dump boiling liquid onto it, stir it, reduce the liquid, and end up with perfect risotto --- rather than carefully tempering the rice with small amounts of slowly stirred liquid. Hence: 7 minute risotto.
It turns out you can also simply hydrate risotto rice (soak it in cold liquid for a couple hours) and do the same thing to it, but it doesn't hold long term the way the retrograded risotto does.
These ideas are due to Ideas in Food, a really amazing blog. The authors have published a couple of books; their first (I think it's just "Ideas In Food") is one of my favorite cooking books.