Coolio the Ghetto Gourmet - Cookin with coolio: 5 star meals at a 1 star price

Cookin with Coolio

A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2009 by Super Cool Entertainment, LLC

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form
whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department,
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

First Atria Paperback edition November 2009

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Designed by Davina Mock-Maniscalco
Photography: Gregor Hryniszak & Tal Gale
Food stylist: Ebony Hill
Lighting designer: Noah Dille

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Coolio.
Cookin with Coolio : 5 star meals at a 1 star price / by Coolio.Atria pbk.

p. cm.

Includes index.

1. Cookery. 2. Quick and easy cookery. 3. Coolio. I. Cookin with Coolio (Electronic resource).
II. Title.
TX714.C672 2011
641.555dc22

ISBN 978-1-4391-1761-3
ISBN 978-1-4391-4973-7 (ebook)

This book is dedicated to my late mother,
who is my culinary inspiration,
Ms. Jackie Mae Jones.

Also, my late aunt Linda Ann Hassan,
and my two living aunts, Dorothy Mae Sharp and Veneter Jones,
who I continue to draw inspiration from.

In addition, Id like to thank Jarel Jarez Posey, a great A.C. and one of the
most talented musicians I know, for going the extra mile.

Id like to thank my partners in making the show Cookin with Coolio
finally happen, Elan Gale, Jared Gilstrap, and Michael T. Fitzgerald, Jr.

Thank you to my representatives, Susan Haber, Marc Gerald,
and Jason Russell for supporting me in all my endeavors.

Finally, Id like to thank everyone at Atria Books,
especially my editor, Amy Tannenbaum.

I can take a cow out of Compton and make it taste better than Kobe beef at your favorite steakhouse. Theres only one thing Ive been doing longer than rapping: cooking. People dont know this about Coolio. I was making thirty-minute meals when I was ten years old and I havent ever looked back. Im the ghetto Martha Stewart, the black Rachael Ray. I am the kitchen pimp who wont hesitate to fillet Bobby Flay or send my posse after Emeril Lagasse.

My specialty is making something out of nothing. Thats a direct result of growing up poor as a motherfucker. Poor kids gotta figure stuff out. Whats in the re-friga-merator? What do we got? Canned tuna, bread, hot sauce, and one clean plate in the cabinet? That may sound like a culinary catastrophe to you. But to me, growing up how I grew up, I learned how to turn that into a masterpiece.

Thats part of why I wanted to write this book. I want people to know that just because youre poor, you dont have to eat fast food every day. People always try to tell you that you have to have money to eat well. Whole Foods and Gelsons have a lot of great stuff, but Ralphs, Vons, Safeway, and Winco have everything you need to make haute cuisine at home. Hell, when I was growing up, I could make a meal out of a package of Top Ramen and a bottle of Windex. All you need is a little bit of food and a little bit of know-how.

Cookin with Coolio???

As you probably know, more than two million people have seen my online cooking show, Cookin with Coolio. A lot of people were surprised when they found out I had a cooking show. They were all like, Why is Coolio cooking on the Internet? Why would he want to do something like that?

Because Coolio likes to cook, and when Coolio likes to do something, he likes to do it better than anyone else. I did the only thing I know how to do: Be the best of the best and put the rest to the test. I wanted the world to see what it was like to deep-fry a Soul Roll. I wanted everyone to know how to properly molest a turkey. I wanted aspiring ghetto gourmets to have the experience of making Finger-Lickin, Rib-Stickin, Fall-Off-the-Bone-and-into-Your-Mouth Chicken!

After a few conversations with my cousin, the Assistant Chef Pimp Jarez, I had an idea for a cooking show that would let me show the world how to pimpify their kitchens. By now, millions of people have seen me cook, and let me tell you, theyre picking up what Im throwing down. People all over the world are secretly saying, Shaka-Zulu, as they move their spices out of jars and into dime bags. After the first season of the cooking show, I decided to turn up the flames on my culinary career. In April 2008, I debuted my catering company and personally cooked meals for private parties in Hollywood and charity events in Beverly Hills. Oxygen, the cable network, actually made a whole reality show called Coolios Rules about the creation of my catering company.

Now, I like to keep busy, so whats a kitchen pimp to do? Clearly, its time for a Cookin with Coolio cookbook. Everybody loves to watch my cooking show, but what if you just cant get enough Coolio? I cant make shows as fast as people can make my meals. Thats why I decided to put together seventy-six of my favorite recipes all in one book, so people can pick up a copy and have enough recipes to keep their stomachs in a gangstas paradise for a long-ass time.

Ive been all over the world playing music and seducing women. But all that rapping and ass slapping can make a man hungry, and a mans gotta eat. What Im bringing you is a collection of tastes, flavors, and ideas that come from all over the place. Some of my recipes come from the Far East, and some from the Westside, but all of them come from that place inside of me that wants to turn every man, woman, and child into a bona fide kitchen pimp. Let the kitchen pimpification of America begin. Shaka-Zulu!

My mom, Jackie, made the best spaghetti this world has ever tasted. She made a chop suey with more moves than Jet Li. Her fried chicken would literally put on tennis shoes and run the fuck into your mouth. But like I said, we grew up poor, and my mom worked nights and my stepdad worked days. When I wanted hot food, I had to figure it out for my damn self. Seeing that I was too young to use the kitchen, Id sneak around and cook shit when I didnt think anybody would find out. One day, I dont even know what happened, a pot jumped out of my hands and I burned the carpet. I waited for my mom to come home like I was on death row and it was my last meal. When she finally came back after a long night of work, two things happened:

1. I got a whooping I wouldnt forget for a long time.

2. After I healed, Mom said, Okay, smart ass. You want to learn how to cook? All right, youre gonna learn how to cook!

From that day on, I never ate a meal I didnt have a hand in. I was chopping onions, mincing garlic, dicing tomatoes, peeling potatoes. Man, I was a sous chef in my mommas own version of Hell.

It wasnt until about five years ago that I realized what all that slave work had done for me. I came to discover that I had an exceptional palate. I could taste any food and tell you what was in it. Matter of fact, I could take one bite out of a rainbow trout and I could tell you where he came from, what his name was, and what kind of music he liked. I started talking to chefs at all the restaurants in all the countries I visited on tour. If they didnt want to tell me what the recipe was, Id tell them how experienced I was with a pistol. Using that, I managed to assemble a catalog of recipes that could almost match my catalog of songs.