Here's a second helping from Richard Ehrlich 80 Recipes for your Pressure Cooker (Kyle Books, 2012) by Richard Ehrlich.

Steamed eggplant with sesame dressing

This is amazingly simple and amazingly good. The only trick lies in buying small eggplant, as the big ones don’t cook quickly enough when cooked whole. Leaving them whole preserves all the flavor and the juiciness.

Serves 4

8 or 12 baby eggplant, about 4 inches long

11/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon sesame oil

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons red wine or cider vinegar

1 thin slice fresh ginger root, finely chopped

2 scallions, finely chopped

freshly ground black pepper

a small handful of fresh cilantro, finely chopped

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Heat up 3 inches of water in your pressure cooker with the steamer insert (or an improvised steamer rack) in place. Put the eggplant in the steamer. Clamp on the lid.

Bring up to full pressure, turn the heat down to medium, and cook for 5 minutes. Leave to vent gradually.

In the meantime, make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients except the cilantro and sesame seeds.

Season with freshly ground black pepper—no salt for now, because soy sauce is salty.

When you are ready to serve, split the eggplant lengthwise, leaving the stem on each one. Spread out on a serving platter, and distribute the dressing and cilantro evenly over them. Heat the sesame seeds in a small dry frying pan until they’re just starting to color.

Sprinkle onto the eggplant and serve immediately. 

Simple steamed eggplant

If you love eggplant as much as I do, you will be happy to eat them sometimes all on their own, with nothing more than a sprinkling of coarse salt and black pepper. Here is the way to do it with medium-sized eggplant weighing about 7 oz.

Heat up 3 inches of water in your pressure cooker with the steamer insert (or an improvised steamer rack) in place. Put the whole eggplant in the steamer. Clamp on the lid. Bring up to full pressure, turn the heat down to medium, and cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and vent immediately.

If the eggplant you buy are larger, they can be cut in half lengthwise, and cooked in the same way.

(* Recipe from '80 Recipes for Your Pressure Cooker' by Richard Ehrlich, Kyle Books-May 2012, Photography by Will Heap, shared with permission of publisher)