Shrimp Shumai

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When we lived in California, one of our favorite things to do was to drive into San Francisco (yes you could still find parking back then) and eat Dim Sum, a sort of brunch. The Asian restaurants in Chinatown would put delicious bites on steamer carts and push them around. You could just point at what you wanted off the cart. It was always a little risky because you were never quite sure what might be in the wrapper. The staff might be able to explain the dish but probably not. Here is a picture I found on the internet, just to show what it might look like. 

Our first experience was with someone who spoke the language, so she explained the food. It was a fairly inexpensive restaurant meal back in the 80’s, so we went back by ourselves several times. 

One of my favorite dumplings has always been the Shrimp Shumai. This is a round, open topped dumpling filled with a shrimp based filling.  You can buy them ready-made in the freezer section of your local Asian Market. You just steam them for about 10 minutes and they are delicious. 

Fast forward 35 years to the days of the Instant Pot. When I bought my first pot they sold these great Egg Bite molds. They were little cups made of silicone – 7 to a tray, and seemed like such a good idea. I just knew I’d use them all the time. Of course, I didn’t.  Egg bites are good, but we just don’t usually eat that much breakfast. 

When I saw an article about using egg-bite molds to make shumai, it was a match made in heaven. Finally a good use for these silicone things that had been taking up space in my pantry!


The first time through, I didn’t have the flavor profile right and they were too dry. I tweaked them and came out with something I really liked. 

There are several unusual ingredients in this recipe. Feel free to alter it (after all a recipe is just a suggestion) as fits your preferences. 

The goyza wrappers are usually available wherever your grocery store keeps things like tofu. Sometimes they are called WonTon wrappers, but those are usually square, so be careful. They might be called dumpling wrappers, but the most important thing is that they should be round and about 4 inches across. 

Ginger root and Tumeric root are things I love and keep in my kitchen, but you could substitute powder or leave them out if you don’t like those flavors.  Just a note about tumeric, it is very yellow and you can see that the shumai came out yellow. I'm ok with that, but feel free to delete the tumeric if you don't like the color.

Here is the recipe I came up with. Last night we had them for supper with my favorite Tuscan Herb Salad kit from HEB. Yummy!!


Shrimp Shumai

Round Goyza Wrappers

2 cup Frozen, raw, peeled, tail off, medium shrimp (After they thaw it’s more like 1 1/3 cup)

½ small onion

4-8 garlic cloves

1 Egg

½ tsp salt

5 – 20 grinds pepper (depending on your preference)

½ - 1 tbsp grated ginger root

½ - 1 tbsp grated turmeric root

½ - 1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tsp corn starch

Panko bread crumbs to consistency

Place onion, and garlic in the food chopper and chop fine. Add the shrimp and make a paste.


Add egg and spices to your preferred spice level. (If you prefer something milder, you could try salt, pepper and 5 spice powder.) 

Add the cornstarch and sesame oil (again, you could delete sesame oil or use a lighter flavored oil  if you prefer). 


The panko bread crumbs are used to bring the blend up to a scoopable consistency. This will be very dependent on how wet your shrimp are to start with. The scoop of filling should stay put and not run while you are trying to shape the dumpling. 

Before you start forming, get a small bowl of water and place it near-by. Put a wrapper on the palm of your hand and using a small scoop or a spoon place filling in the middle. You should use approximately 1 tbsp of filling and you can buy little cookie scoops just that size. 



Dip your finger in the water and run it around the edge of the wrapper then go around and pinch it together around the filling with 6 or 7 pinches. Then carefully place each dumpling in one of the egg-bite cups. Be sure the filling stays upright when you place it in the cup.


Put water in the bottom of the instant pot and add a liftable trivet. If you don’t have a liftable trivet, you can make a lifter out of aluminum foil. This makes it easier to get the molds out when they are hot. 


Add the egg bite molds, uncovered. Be sure to turn the second one  a little so it is resting on the divider not on the first set of dumplings. 

Put the instant pot on Steam and steam under pressure for 10 minutes. 

Remove them and put them on a plate. If you want you can garnish them with sesame seeds, chives, fried onions, or something else creative.  


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