Brandy is a chicken liver pâté’s best friend, although butter is a strong rival in the besties’ stakes. Flaming the simmered onions with brandy adds a tremendous depth of flavour.
The chicken liver pâtés I make are usually textured, in that I prefer not to blend them too finely; I like the “country pâté” style. But this one rings the changes, flaming with brandy during the brief cooking and then blending the mixture quite finely, though not so finely as to be a parfait.
Chicken livers need less time in the pan than more, so I set light to the brandy with the cooked onions and garlic, rather than after the livers had been added and cooked.
The completed and blended pâté can be topped with melted butter and refrigerated for up to a week.
Ingredients
500 g chicken livers, cleaned
1 red onion, finely diced
2 fat garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 thyme sprigs, picked
100 g butter and 3 Tbsp more
3 tots brandy and another for luck
⅓ cup cream
1 heaped tsp Hot English Mustard
Salt and black pepper
5 Tbsp extra melted butter if refrigerating before use
Method
Remove the connective tissue in the livers with a small, sharp knife. Chop the onions and garlic. Melt 3 Tbsp butter and add the onions and garlic, simmering gently until softened but not taking on much colour.
Careful now: Holding the pan away from anything above it that could catch fire, add the 3 tots or so of brandy and put the flame to it. Roll the pan slightly from side to side while it burns away.
Put it back on the heat and add the thyme leaves and another tot of brandy, for the uncooked liquor to give it a bit of a kick. Stir in the mustard and cream, season with salt and black pepper, heat through, then add the chicken livers. Cook them, turning often, for 2 or 3 minutes until all sides are browned but the centre is still pink.
Melt the remaining 100 g butter in a separate small pot. Spoon the cooked mixture into a deep bowl or jug and pour in the melted butter. Blend until smooth.
Spoon into ramekins set in the fridge if using soon. If keeping for up to a week, melt butter and pour on top, then cover with cling film. DM/TGIFood
Are Muslims going to stone radical Congressmuslim Ilhan Omar to death for publicly supporting the LGBT movement?
Just goes to show, you cannot claim to be a Far Left Progressive and a Muslim at the same time. Democrat Congressmuslim Ilhan Omar (D-MN) became a target of the wrath of Islam when she publicly voiced support for the LGBT movement by wishing gays a Happy Pride Month.
PJ Media(h/t Nita) That was straightforward and unremarkable coming from a far-Left congresswoman, but this particular far-Leftist publicly displays her adherence to Islamic law whenever she appears in public wearing her hijab.
Regarding homosexual activity, Islamic law (Sharia) is unambiguous, as one tradition attributed to Muhammad demonstrates.
The prophet of Islam is depicted as saying: “Whoever you find doing the action of the people of Lot, execute the one who does it and the one to whom it is done.’” (Sunan Abu Dawud 4462) The “people of Lot” are the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and so this statement became the basis for the death penalty for homosexuals in Sharia states. No room for Pride Month there.
Because of this teaching, some Muslims were enraged that Omar would extend good wishes to “LGBTQ+ Americans.” One quoted in response to Omar’s tweet a warning from the Qur’an about following the ways of the unbelievers:
If you were to follow their desires after the knowledge that has come to you, you would find no one to protect you from God or help you” (2:120). Mohammed Hijab, a prominent Islamic spokesman and debater in Britain, tweeted:
Dr. Abdullah Ali, an associate professor of Islamic Law and the Prophetic Tradition at Zaytuna College, a Muslim undergraduate college in Berkeley, Calif., didn’t mention Omar, but his rejection of her perspective was unmistakable when he tweeted Saturday:
Another Muslim invited Omar to leave Islam: “Have you not read the Qur’an before? Do you know what is the consequence of the people of Lot ?! Take off the veil and embrace the religion of those who support and want equality for gays, because whoever carries your ideas we do not want him to pollute Islam.”
Another actually tweeted a gif of an angry cartoon Muslim throwing stones at an unseen offender.
lhan Omar has aroused the ire of the Muslim community before. This isn’t the first time she has extolled Pride Month, and her present marriage to her political strategist, Tim Mynett, raised eyebrows in Muslim communities, as Islamic law forbids Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men. That controversy died down when Mynett reportedly converted to Islam.
A spokesman for the US House of Representative Ilhan Omar, confirmed that the Somali born politician married her strategies Tim Mynett (formerly Jewish). Ilhan recently posted a photo of herself and her new husband, Tim Mynett, on her Instagram page, writing: “Got married! From partners in politics to life partners, so blessed. Alhamdulillah.”
After an intense debate and criticism from some Somalis, accusing her of marrying a non-Muslim, Ilhan Omar’s spokesman Jeremy Slevin told the BBC that Tim Mynett had converted to Islam.“I assure you that they were married in accordance with Islamic law and that Ilhan’s husband converted to Islam,” Jeremy said.
Strikingly, Omar has never received blowback from within the Muslim community for her notorious marriage to her brother, as it is generally understood to have been a fiction for immigration purposes, so as far as the guardians of Islamic morals were concerned, no harm was done.
But the Pride Month issue is larger than Ilhan Omar. She is not the only prominent Leftist who wears a hijab (Linda Sarsour and Zahra Billoo of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations are two others), and as Muslims continue to grow in prominence and influence on the Left, the cracks in the “diversity” edifice are only going to get wider. If we’re lucky, the entire coalition will break apart before it can realize the fullness of its insidious agenda for the United States.
“No fewer than 40 out of 57 Muslim-majority countries or territories have laws that criminalize homosexuality, prescribing punishments ranging from fines and short jail sentences to whippings and more than 10 years in prison or death.”
How did the shaman showman cast a spell on Norway's Princess Märtha Louise? Durek Verrett is Hollywood's self-styled 'global ambassador of love' - now the controversial school dropout is set to join the ranks of European royalty, writes TOM LEONARD
Shaman Durek, real name Durek Verrett, is set to wed Norway's Princess Martha
The pair have put resistance to their relationship in Norway down to racism
But level-headed Scandinavians take a dim view of Verrett's wacky claims
He says he can 'emotionally download people' and 'help' cancer sufferers
He calls himself a sixth-generation shaman, whose powers to communicate with the spirit world, 'emotionally download people' and 'help' victims of cancer have won him Hollywood fans, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Selma Blair and Rosario Dawson.
Paltrow, the founder of wellness and lifestyle brand Goop, has even described the bisexual, self-styled 'global ambassador of love' as her 'soul brother'.
Others call Durek Verrett a deluded buffoon at best — a showman rather than shaman who is minting it from his ability to persuade film stars and in many cases desperately vulnerable people into believing that he has supernatural powers.
And then there are the Norwegians who, whatever their views on his abilities, may soon have to call Hollywood's Shaman Durek a member of their royal family. The 'most heartfelt congratulations' that King Harald and Queen Sonja have sent to their daughter, Princess Martha Louise, and Shaman Durek following their engagement announcement last week will hardly be echoed by all their subjects.
The level-headed Scandinavians take a dim view of Mr Verrett's wacky claims, however much Tinseltown royalty rhapsodises about a man who charges up to $1,500 (£1,200) an hour and champions the power of the spirit world over conventional science and medicine.
Princess Martha Louise, the royal couple's oldest child and a distant cousin of the Queen, remains fourth in line to the Norwegian throne after her younger brother Prince Haakon and his children. Apart from his claim to be of Norwegian descent, Mr Verrett may not appear to have much in common with the princess. In fact, they were made for each other: the divorced mother of three also claims to be very much in touch with the spirit world.
Always unconventional, she gave up her HRH title in 2002 when she married a commoner, a writer called Ari Behn.
He committed suicide on Christmas Day 2019, two years after their divorce came through.
Shaman Durek and Princess Martha-Louise of Norway attend Derek Warburton's Celebration of the Launch of his New PRIDE Makeup Collection Benefiting GLSEN on June 10, 2022
The couple, who announced their engagement on Tuesday, pictured, said people like to watch royal interracial relationships on TV like in Netflix's Bridgerton, but they don't like to watch real interracial relationships
She began claiming to be clairvoyant as long ago as 2007, describing herself as a 'high sensitivity light fountain'.
She opened the Astarte Education Centre for communicating with angels, promising to teach students to 'create miracles' in their lives 'with angels and with your own force'. The school closed in 2018.
In 2019, she announced (on Instagram) that she had found love with Verrett, her American self-described 'spirit hacker', a Los Angeles-based one-time young offender who at 47 is three years her junior — and three months later renounced many of her royal duties.
The couple met on a blind date arranged by mutual friends in a vegan restaurant in 2018, although Verrett claims they have met several times before during past lives, including one in which — conveniently — he was a pharaoh and she his queen.
She described him as her 'twin flame', adding: 'He has made me realise that unconditional love actually exists here on this planet.'
Within days of the announcement, the pair bore out the fears of sceptics that she would compromise her family, by holding a series of seminars across Norway titled The Princess And The Shaman. After an outcry over the way she was exploiting her royal title, she agreed not to use it for her work.
The couple have attributed much of the hostility he has encountered in Norway to racism. He has said that 'people don't want a black man in a European royal family' and claimed that the couple have received death threats.
Shaman Durek, real name Durek Verrett, is pictured with Jo Wood. He is set to marry Norway's Princess Martha
A Norwegian newspaper that attended those first seminars given by the couple was not impressed. 'We were prepared for gibberish and cliches but it was still two hours of your life you'll never get back,' reported the iTromso. 'The problem was a lack of form followed by a lack of content.'
In an Instagram post, Verrett said he was 'overjoyed' that he would spend 'the rest of my life with the most pure-hearted, angelic, wise, powerhouse woman who represents all levels of a goddess in my eyes'.
No doubt anticipating a backlash to their engagement — they're both clairvoyant, after all — the happy couple put out a statement challenging the cynics: 'Love does not judge where you come from or who you are as a human being. Love creates a bridge between people, cultures and religions.'
That sort of flannel no doubt goes down a treat in La La Land but it's hardly likely to reassure those — particularly in Norway — who have denounced Verrett and have spent time debunking his many wild claims.
Verrett describes himself with all manner of impressive New Age descriptions including 'evolutionary innovator' and 'women's empowerment leader'.
He has claimed that, like other shamans, he can talk to spirit animals and human ghosts, having first discovered his shamanic powers at the age of two when his mother played drums and sent him into a trance in which he met his dead ancestors.
He was brought up in Sacramento, California, and it has been reported that he was raised in vast wealth as the son of a successful property developer who had a private jet.
At other times, he has said they were so poor he'd have to go fishing at night to feed his relatives.
He adds that he began his shamanic training aged 11 and got his powers through his mother.
He also claims he was sexually abused by a male babysitter, causing him to drink heavily and use drugs as a teenager.
He dropped out of school and got into trouble, breaking into a home so that he and some friends could throw a party. Then they burned it down —and he was sentenced to juvenile detention.
He says he has lived in Turkey, Israel, Belize and London, where he stayed with a hedge-fund manager client whose 'life I turned around'.
The patronage of Gwyneth Paltrow (left) and her highly controversial 'wellness' empire, Goop, has clearly been crucial in Verrett's rise
He says he has dated both men and women, his longest relationship —with a masseur named Hank Greenberg — lasting eight years. They were engaged to be married but split up acrimoniously in 2014.
Mr Greenberg, his former business partner, has criticised Verrett's chumminess with his rich and famous clients — including the princess — and questioned his 'authenticity'.
Shamans supposedly provide a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds, allowing the dead to give advice, and channel healing energy.
During his healing sessions, he kicks off with a 'shamanic reading', analysing a patient's eyes, breathing and bones. In the technique he calls 'spirit hacking', he invokes the spirits of dead family members — including his father, his opera singer aunt and his grandmother — to help him 'reboot' his patients.
Verrett claims he can free clients of 'blockages' that prevent them from finding success or love, or alternatively overcoming addictions.
He also keeps a bucket on hand, having spoken in the past of getting patients to vomit out 'poisons' in their body. Verrett limits the poisons in his own system by not eating meat, a diet which he says is particularly painful for him as he feels the memories of any animal he consumes.
(He also finds train travel a problem because of all the 'spirit guides' of fellow passengers trying to talk to him.)
Shaman Durek has reportedly promoted a conspiracy theory similar to that propagated by David Icke, who claims that shape-shifting alien reptilians control the Earth, and he has even said he is part reptilian. He has also claimed he can split atoms. He does at least concede he is mortal, having almost died from renal failure — 'flatlining' for four minutes — before a kidney transplant in 2012.
Utterly outlandish as his professed powers are, he is clearly not lacking in charisma. People who have met him describe him as 'mesmerising' and 'captivating'.
The princess and her American spiritual guru boyfriend pictured with Gwyneth Paltrow
Most of his clients are women and many have proved to be shamanic putty in his hands. One afternoon, in the summer of 2019, for instance, he apparently reduced each of six women gathered on a patio in Hollywood to tears in just 17 minutes. 'Breaking into song, speaking in tongues, sometimes touching the women, he became a spiritual emissary/janitor, releasing negative energy, minimising pain, and healing trauma,' reported Vanity Fair magazine.
One of the women 'moaned and sobbed so loudly that it was reminiscent of the Katz's Deli scene in When Harry Met Sally'.
He will often sing songs from Disney films, a musical passion he shares with the princess.
His professional advice includes gynaecological tips. He says some women can get 'imprints' on the inside of their vagina if they have too much sex, and provides them with exercises that can 'clean out' those imprints.
Rather more seriously, he has been accused of misleading cancer and leukaemia sufferers.
He has denied ever saying he can cure cancer but insists he can help 'alleviate' it.
He has also rejected allegations that he has claimed he can defy the ageing process.
Still, with his Hollywood celebrity fan club singing his praises, business has been good, especially in the self-improvement-obsessed U.S.
He wrote a well-publicised 2019 book, Spirit Hacking: Shamanic Keys To Reclaim Your Personal Power, Transform Yourself And Light Up The World.
In it, he claims cancer can be caused by 'negative thoughts' and that chemotherapy is given to cancer patients not because it helps patients but because doctors make money from it.
In March, Martha Louise shared the first snap of her three children alongside her partner Shaman Durek (pictured)
He also reveals that malign spirits are attracted to casual sex, leaving those vaginal imprints that he knows how to remove.
His international tour to promote his tome included a trip to London in which ticket holders (paying up to £110 each) learned about 'shamanic clearing of unwanted energies' and how to 'activate their light intelligence mentality'.
The patronage of Gwyneth Paltrow and her highly controversial 'wellness' empire, Goop, has clearly been crucial in his rise.
'What I love about Gwyneth is that from the moment we met, we knew we were brother and sister and that we were meant to be in each other's lives,' he gushed to the Mail three years ago.
'There are no walls or barriers between us. Just love . . . her husband is my brother, her children are my babies.'
He insists he isn't motivated by money, claiming that when he first met Princess Martha Louise, he checked to see she wasn't wearing a glitzy watch.
'If she had, I wouldn't have been interested. I hate that kind of ostentation.'
Shaman Durek has admitted that he was taken aback by the hostile reception he received in Norway when he first visited with her and said he told the princess he wouldn't go back 'for a long time'.
Now he's set to join the nation's most illustrious family, no doubt his spirit companions are in wholehearted agreement.
The RussiaGate scandal was thrust upon the country by the FBI and former director James Comey.Walt Disney Television via Getty Images
The FBI knew the Trump-Russia collusion narrative was utter bunk even as it suggested otherwise to Congress, the courts and the public early in 2017. Evidence revealed by special counsel John Durham proves it beyond dispute.
Declassified for Durham’s probe, a March 2017 memo prepared by Lisa Pagefor FBI head James Comey’s meeting with Congress’ “Gang of Eight” — the bipartisan House and Senate leaders who oversee the most classified stuff — was a total cook-up job.
It advised Comey to present accusations that Trump’s campaign chair Paul Manafort and foreign policy adviser Carter Page were working with the Russian government as coming from a confidential Russia-based source with real intel-community chops. In fact, the FBI had already established that the root source was US-based former Brookings flunky Igor Danchenko’s utterly speculative gossip with an ex-girlfriend and a Democratic Party hack.
That, plus publicly reported info, was all Christopher Steele (a retired British spy who doesn’t even speak Russian) ever had to back up his “dossier.” And the FBI knew it since at least January 2017, when it interviewed Danchenko.
Comey hid all this during his meetings, and after. Yet the public only learned it years later, once the Durham probe began.
The Comey meeting where he served up these nonsense stories prompted both House and Senate Intelligence committees to open probes. But that was hardly the only poisoned fruit.
Special counsel John Durham’s investigation brought the flimsy beginnings of the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe to light.Ron Sachs/CNP / SplashNews.com
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, counterintelligence officer Peter Strzok, analyst Brian Auten and Justice attorney Kevin Clinesmith pretended the Danchenko “intel” was credible to get the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court’s OK for wiretaps on Carter Page and dupe the Justice Department to keep granting approval for Trump campaign surveillance (which did not corroborate the wild claims). Again, all while they knew Danchenko had admitted it was baseless.
For years, the media lionized these people as saviors of the Republic, even after special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe turned up zero evidence in support of their claims.
It was a purely political hit job from the start, by top members of the highest law- enforcement agency in the land, against a candidate-and-then-president they opposed. For all the justified anger at Trump over the Jan. 6 riot, this methodical and effective deception plot looks far more like an attempted coup.
Yet, other than losing their jobs, none of the plotters has paid any real price. Comey and Strzok both wrote best-sellers; McCabe even had his retirement benefits restored (after being fired for lying under oath) under the Biden administration.
Of course, most media have no interest in sharing the truth. They won Pulitzers and endless clicks from hyping Russiagate, using it to kneecap a president they despised.
At this point, it’s up to Durham to keep exposing this unprecedented abuse of power for nakedly personal partisan ends, though Congress may help out once Democrats no longer run it.
Until the plotters are held accountable, there actually is good reason to worry about the future of democracy in America.
