Nigel Slater’s recipes for pickled ginger and baked chicken wings

Occasionally, I get a craving for something more complex. This week it was a need – lust might be a more accurate word – for hot, sweet, salty chicken, the sort that leaves you gasping for a cold beer. I tossed chubby, free-range chicken wings from the butcher in ginger, garlic, chilli and fish sauce, then baked them until they were bronzed and, here and there, lightly scorched. I made a dressing of tomatoes and the caramelly stickings from the roasting tin and spiked it with lime. A hit of heat, crunchy bones, salt and sour in one tantalisingly hot mouthful. Of course, I jumped in too soon, stinging my lips in the process, but scarlet wings, chilli and lime was just the hit I needed.