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by knife or mortar, as fine as you can get it

garlic + Thai chiles, minced or pounded to near-paste. Sliced garlic and sliced chile sink to the bottom of the bowl and stay there, so the first spring roll gets nothing and the last one gets all the heat. Pounded fine they stay suspended through the liquid and coat whatever is dipped. Seeding half the chiles is the lever for heat — the seeds and the pale ribs hold most of it, and you cannot take heat back out once it is in