Kraken Ahi Sushi Nachos

Here’s a fun fact for you.  Did you know octopuses have three hearts?  It’s true.  Here’s another fun fact.  Octopuses have blue blood.  Pretty cool, right?  Ready for another?  Octopuses are direct descendants from the old gods, which means anyone who eats octopus (no matter how tasty) potentially runs the risk of incurring the wrath of the Kraken.

Good thing these sushi nachos topped with tasty mango Kraken tentacles are actually 100% cephalopod free..and 100% delicious!

Of course, if you are fearless, you are more than welcome to substitute real octopus tentacles for these nachos and skip ahead to the actual recipe at the bottom of this post, but if you’re like us and respect your cephalopod elders, well…let’s whip up a plate of delicious, non-damning nachos with mango tentacles!

And yes, before we go any further, this post does contain some affiliate links. Click here to read my whole disclosure.

The first thing you have to do is make your tentacles and that means making an appropriate tentacle mold.  I’ve made quite a few molds on this site, but have to admit that my tentacle mold is probably one of my all time favorites so far.  In fact, I’ve used it in not one, but three other recipes including my Key S-lime pie, my Evil Genius boozy beverage and my Zombie Milkshake (both parts 1 and 2!).

While this is all great, what I neglected to do in all of those tutorials was really give you guys a good run down of how I actually made that mold!  For that, I’m eternally sorry and will rectify right now (I’ll also update all the other recipes so they’ll point to this one whenever anyone clicks on “let’s make that tentacle mold!”

If you do this step, be aware you need to do it at least 24 hours ahead of time as it takes about that long for the mold to cure.

The first thing you need to do is gather your materials.  I picked up these toy tentacles ages ago and knew they were perfect for molding. Feel free to shop around for other tentacles if you want, but be warned…I’d suggest having safe search on before googling “tentacle toys.”  Or not.  Up to you.  (Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

I also grabbed some Smooth-Sil 940 two-part FOOD SAFE silicone. Now, before we go any further, I have to tell you…make sure whatever silicone you use is food safe.  If you decide to use the two-part putty method (we used it in my banana slug cream pie recipe) that’s fine too…as long as the putty you use is FOOD SAFE.

I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, nobody likes paperwork, and if your butt ends up down in Hell ahead of schedule because you’ve decided to go all maverick and grab a tube of tub caulk and use that to make your mold…well, we have a special spot for you helping the rest of the Darwin Award winners out in Hell’s call center doing customer service for the rest of eternity.

Trust me, it’s not worth it.

Okay, back to the task at hand.  You’ll also need:

• Cardboard or heavy foam core board
• Scissors or Exacto knife
• Hot glue
• Painter’s tape
• Plastic cups
• Kitchen scale
• Popsicle sticks or stir sticks

Using your cardboard or foam core, make a box roughly the size of your tentacle.  Now because I’m a dumb ass, I totally neglected to take good photos of the box I built for my tentacle, so you guys all get to enjoy some of my art today as I attempt to illustrate what I did.

This should be interesting…

To start, you’ll want to make sure there’s at least 3/4″ space around the sides and end of your tentacle. That way your mold is thick enough to hold its shape.  I started with a rectangle approximately 1″ by 2″ and glue the end of my tentacle to it using huge amounts of hot glue.

Next, you want to cut out strips of foam core approximately 2″ wide and about 8″ tall.  Glue these all around your tentacle, making sure to leave the top open and making sure that your tentacle ONLY touches the cardboard at the bottom.  Again, try to leave 3/4″ all the way around the sides and top.

This is what it looks like if you have three of the four walls glued down.

Here’s what it looks like with all four walls glued in place:

If you had x-ray vision, it would look like this:

Now that I’ve tortured you all enough with my doodles, let’s move on.  Make sure to reinforce ALL your seams by going over them again with blue painters tape.  Silicone is nothing if not an escape artist, and the last thing you want to do is flood your mold only to find your very expensive silicone leaking out the sides through an almost microscopic spot (and trust me, if there’s a spot for it to escape, the silicone will find it!).

Once you’re all taped up, let’s start mixing up some silicone.

Smooth-Sil 940 mixes at a ratio of 10:1 so having a scale is absolutely critical.  You want to weigh this stuff out.  Not only will your measurements be more precise, but your silicone has a much better chance of “kicking” the way you want it too.  Too much of one part or another and you could end up with a goopy runny mess.  Not cool.

Use your scale (don’t forget to zero out your scale after you put down your mixing cup but before you add any of your part A!) and measure out however much of Part A you need (Again, I’m sorry I didn’t document this better.  I wish I could tell you how much I used.  It was definitely more than the 20 on the scale, so don’t go by that image!  An easy way to find out how much you need is to fill your mold with water, pour that out into a zeroed out cup and then use that to find your weight for A.)

Carefully add in 1/10 of B.  So, if you have 100g of A, you’ll need 10g of B.  Simple math, right?

Now, using a spatula or stir stick, stir the hell out of that mixture until the two are fully blended and you end up with a nice, Pepto-Bismol pink slime.

 

Carefully drizzle this slime into your mold box, pausing now and again to gently tap it on the sides and the bottom.  This helps to release any air bubbles that might get caught on your tentacle.  But be careful, don’t tap too hard.  You don’t want your tentacle to dislodge from the bottom and float to the top and ruin your mold.

Fill the entire thing up to the edge of your mold, making sure you have at least 3/4″ of silicone covering the tip of your tentacle.

Set your mold aside for at least 24 hours to cure.

When it’s cured, just peel off the cardboard mold box.  You should be left with a solid block of fully cured silicone with your tentacle encased inside like this:

Now, turn it upside down so you’re looking down at where you glued your tentacle down.  It should look like this:

Minds out of the gutters, children.

Carefully, using your Exacto knife, cut your mold in half, starting with this cut line here:

Continue cutting your mold in half (being careful not to cut your tentacle) until you can lay the whole thing open like this:

 

Release your plastic tentacle from the mold and give it a good wash with soap and water.  You’re ready to make edible tentacles!

To make your mango Kraken tentacles for this recipe you will need:

• 1 can of Mango juice
• 4 envelopes unflavored gelatin
• Our mold
• Food coloring in the colors of your choice

Normally I’d tell you to use Kerns mango juice for recipes.  Personally it’s my absolute favorite and first go-to when it comes to fruit juices, but it’s also really thick and very sweet.  This is a savory recipe so we’re looking for a mango that will compliment that.  That’s why I am suggesting for this recipe you use a can of Jumex Mango (if you can find it.)  It’s not as thick and definitely not as sweet.

Shake that can up really good and dump it into a pot on your stove.  Drink the second can (preferably with a good shot of vodka mixed in).

Sprinkle your unflavored gelatin over your cold mango juice and let it bloom for about 10 minutes.

Once it’s bloomed and looks like this, turn on your stove to medium low and stir to combine.

Bring your mango juice up to just barely simmering.  All we want to do is melt the gelatin, not boil it.  Let it just sit under a simmer for about a minute or two, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and add in your food coloring.

Originally I wanted my tentacles to be purple, but because my mango juice was orange, they turned out a dark grey, almost black.  Eh, I like black, so it’s fine.  Do whatever color makes you happy and works with the color of your mango juice base.

Transfer to a squeeze bottle and allow to cool to about room temperature.

Wrap the bottom of your tentacle mold with plastic wrap (it helps prevent leaks) and rubber band your two sides back together.

Using your squeeze bottle, fill your mold up to the top with your mango gel and pop into the fridge for about 30 minutes or so to firm up.

Once your tentacle is firm, carefully split your mold apart and remove it.  Place it into an open Tupperware container in your fridge and continue making tentacles until you have as many as you want for the recipe.

Store any unused mango gel in the fridge until later.  To re-liquefy it to continue making tentacles, simply pop your squeeze bottle in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds.

Woohoo!  Finally!  Let’s get this damn recipe started.

But wait…there’s MORE prep.

Holy hell, are you serious?

Yes.  We need to make our black Kraken nacho chips.  Because these are sushi nachos, we’re not using corn chips…we’re using rice chips that we’ll be dying black.

To make your Kraken chips, you’ll need:

• Rice paper wrappers (I used about 4-6 for this recipe with a little extra left over for snacking)
• Black food coloring
• Water
• Salt

You will also need a shallow pan with edges big enough to hold your spring roll wrappers, some paper towels, and some wax paper.

Start by first filling the pan with slightly warm water and adding in enough black dye to turn the water as inky and dark as my sense of humor.

Place one sheet of your spring roll wrappers in the water and allow it to soak and soften for about 30-45 seconds.  Your wrapper should soak up both the water and the color and transform into an inky black sheet.  Carefully remove it from the water and place it on your counter.  Using a paper towel, gently blot the excess water from the wrapper.

Transfer it to a piece of waxed paper, sprinkle it with just the tiniest pinch of salt and set it aside to dry for about 60 minutes.

Repeat this process with about 5 more sheets of rice paper, setting them down on top of each other to dry, with a piece of wax paper in between each layer of rice paper.

After 60 minutes, carefully separate your rice paper from the wax paper.  It’s going to be very gummy and stretchy, but it’s still fragile enough to rip, so do this very gently.  All we’re doing is making sure it’s not sticking to the wax paper too much.  You’ll want to continue to let it dry so either reuse the original wax paper if it’s not too damaged from the water from the rice paper, or use fresh pieces.  Again, layer your rice paper with the wax paper and this time, allow to dry for a full 24 hours.

Once your rice paper is fully dry, it should look like this:

Don’t worry if it’s wrinkly or weird shaped.  That happens during the drying and isn’t going to affect the final flavor of our Kraken Nachos in any way.

Now, carefully break your rice paper into chip-sized chunks.  The rice paper is really fragile at this point, so a little force goes a long way.  Bend too fast or too sharply and you’ll end up with rice paper shards.  Take it slow and steady.

Transfer a handful of these chips to your microwave and zap for about 30-45 seconds.

As they cook, they’ll sort of “air fry,” getting thicker and sturdier.  You can see the difference in the photo below.  The one on the right is cooked.  The one on the left is ‘raw.’

I will tell you from experience, do NOT fry these for this recipe.  While it’s true that fried rice paper is DELICIOUS, they’re also extremely fragile and soak up liquid like a sponge.  We want our chips to be robust and a little stronger when it comes to liquids.  Nobody wants mushy nachos.

Once your chips are all “air” fried, let’s make some Kraken Sushi Nachos!

You will need:

• 2 cups diced fresh Ahi tuna
• 1 fresh mango, diced
• 1 fresh avocado, diced
• 1 spring onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup seaweed salad
• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 Tablespoon Ponzu sauce
• 1/4 Teaspoon Wasabi
• 1 Teaspoon black sesame seeds
• 1/2 Teaspoon black lava sea salt (you can substitute plain sea salt if you don’t have black lava)
• Your Kraken tentacles (or regular cooked octopus tentacles…you heathen!)
• Your Kraken chips

In a large bowl, combine your Ahi tuna with your mango, avocado, seaweed salad, and spring onion.  Sprinkle in half your sesame seeds and toss well to mix.

In a separate bowl, mix together your vegetable oil, your Ponzu sauce and your wasabi. Blend together to create an emulsion.

Drizzle this over your Ahi/mango/avo mixture and toss well to completely coat.

On a plate lay down a layer of your rice chips and carefully spoon your Ahi mango mixture over top.  Add in a few tentacles wherever you think the aesthetic of the plate calls for them.

Continue layering chips, Ahi mango mix, and tentacles until you’ve used up either all your chips or all your Ahi mixture.

Sprinkle with the remaining sesame seeds and a pinch of your black lava sea salt and then DIG IN!

 

Mmm…these nachos, while not traditional, are absolutely DELICIOUS and the perfect salty sea-tinged snack.

The sweetness of the mango combined with the cool fatty salt of the ahi and the smooth buttery avocado is absolutely delicious…and with the crunch of our rice chips underneath, the unique flavor of the seaweed salad and that subtle kiss of wasabi heat on top…mmm…SO DAMN GOOD!

All I’ve got to say about this recipe is…it’s so tasty, y’all better get KRAKEN and make your own plate to enjoy!

Bone appetite!

For more sushi-inspired madness, why not make our Beetlejuice inspired killer shrimp arm?

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