Chop the chicken livers into smaller, even-sized pieces. Remove and discard any sinew bits. Have all your remaining ingredients prepped and ready - and be sure to use softened butter (simply leave the butter at room temperature for several hours before starting.)

Use about two tablespoons of the butter you have and melt in a pan on the stove top. Very gently cook the onions, garlic and dried thyme until softened and translucent. Do not allow to colour, the heat should be low. This can take up to 15 minutes.

Add the Brandy to the pan and cook until the Brandy completely cooks out and there is no moisture remaining.

Remove the mixture from the heat and set aside to cool.

Scatter the salt over the chicken livers, then place the livers, softened butter and eggs into a bowl. Add the cooled onion-Brandy mixture to the bowl. Place the bowl of mixture inside a larger bowl that has been filled with warm tap water. Leave to stand like this for 10-15 minutes. This may sound like a bizarre step, but we need to get all the ingredients at the same temperature to ensure our parfait doesn't split. (Note: If your bowl of mixture 'floats' in the larger bowl of water, simply place something heavy on top, like two dinner plates.) Stir and agitate the mixture once or twice.

At this time, you can preheat the oven to 100°C (fan oven). This is 120°C for conventional ovens (or 210°F / gas mark 1).

Remove the bowl from the larger bowl of water, then use a hand (stick) blender to blitz the mixture until smooth. If you didn't trim the sinew from your livers, you will know about it now. (They will wrap around the blade, and can delay the blitzing, or even damage your stick blender.)

Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Use a pastry scraper to work the mixture through the sieve. (To ensure nothing goes to waste, clean the scraper, then use it to scrape the bottom of the sieve where lots of smooth mixture is still sitting.) Discard the contents of the sieve - the herbs have done their job and the remaining residue is likely bits of sinew left from the livers.

Divide the mixture between 4 ramekins and place the ramekins into a large, deep roasting dish.

Pour boiling hot water into the roasting dish. Do not get any water into the ramekins.

Cover the dish tightly with foil.

Place in the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes.

Please use a meat probe thermometer now. Open the oven and insert it into the mixture of one of the ramekins. If the temperature is above 68°C / 155°F, the mixture is sufficiently cooked through and safe to eat.

Carefully remove the ramekins from the dish of water and set aside to cool. Keep the foil on top.

After the parfait has cooled, melt the extra butter (mentioned under "TO FINISH" in ingredients list) over low heat in a small pan. Set aside.

Lift the foil from the ramekins and use a spoon to gently scrape off the oxidised top layer of parfait. You will notice that just under the brown layer is a beautiful pink parfait.

Work quickly as the mixture will oxidise and discolour again, this is why we cover it with the melted butter which will preserve the colour and set as a solid layer.

Pop a little thyme sprig in there to be fancy, and place in the fridge to set and cool completely.