Paprika lemon chicken wings

Hello everyone, I cooked this recipe for dinner last night and it made me think a lot about old and new and how things change. I don't even know the providence of this recipe - it is a handwritten one out of my own little book of recipes. I suspect that it's one I might have picked up when my mother sent me off to the very popular cooking schools AGL used to run for children and teenagers in the school holidays. I gathered quite a few good recipes from that course which have come in handy over the years.

This dish is something that I used to cook regularly at home, particularly when I was left in charge of my sisters when Mum and Dad went out to dinner. In a sign of changing times, I note in my cook book that I amended the recipe for cooking in the microwave! Weren't they exciting times when microwaves entered our kitchens. I remember that Mum went off to TAFE with a bunch of her friends and they did a whole course in microwave cooking! Suddenly we were cooking everything this new, super-fast way, using the broadband of the kitchen. Of course, now most of us have abandoned our microwaves and only use them for defrosting food and warming up wheat packs to put in bed in winter.

And so it is with these chicken wings. I have gone back to baking them in the oven. I did them last night in a beautiful claypot that I have had for years and pulled out from the back of a cupboard the night before. It cooks beautifully. Another reason why I like making this recipe is the coating of the wings in flour - it reminds me of how my Nana used to cook. And in another sign of the times, I reduced the amount of butter in the recipe quite dramatically. I don't know what they were thinking in the late 70s using the quantities they did!

Have a happy week, love from Jane xx

Paprika lemon chicken wings

Serves four

What you need:

• 12 chicken wings
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 20g butter, melted

Lemon sauce

• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• Pepper
• 2 tablespoons light olive oil
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped

What you do:

1. Combine flour, salt, pepper and paprika in a large bowl.
2. Toss the wings in the flour to coat evenly.
3. Arrange wings in a claypot if you have one (soaked in cold water for a few minutes first), or arrange in a flat baking dish.
4. Pour the melted butter over the wings.
5. Bake, uncovered, in a 200 oven for 30 minutes.
6. While the wings are baking combine the ingredients for the lemon sauce. Make sure you zest the lemon while it's still whole as it will be a lot easier that way.
7. After the first 30 minutes of baking spoon the lemon sauce over the wings and return to the oven for about another 20 minutes, or until cooked through and the tips are nice and crisp.
8. Serve with boiled rice and a green salad. Or whatever you like really, that is just a suggestion.