Before beginning the grinding and pounding process with a mortar and pestle, be sure to have all your ingredients prepped and set out. The basic rule of thumb is to start with your hardest ingredients and work in order to the softest ingredients, with one exception I’ll mention in a moment.

Start with your toasted cumin and coriander seeds and the white peppercorns. Grind into a fine powder and remove. The reason for removing them is that the powder acts as a nice absorber when you feel the ingredients are getting too wet.

Now place your chilis in the mortar and begin grinding them slowly. The reason I start with the chilis is that they can release a lot of moisture as you work, and as you start lifting the pestle higher and pounding the ingredients, you don’t want chili juices spraying back into your face and burning your eyes.

Next add the lemongrass and keep grinding and pounding, being sure to fully finish incorporating one ingredient before adding the next. Follow the lemongrass with the galangal. At any point when the ingredients feel too wet, start adding the spices back in to absorb some of that juice.

Next up is the lime leaf and coriander root/stems. Sometime around the galangal and lime leaves is a good time to add in the salt as well. Where the powdered spices act as a nice absorption layer, the salt acts as an abrasive layer to give you extra help grinding some of the fibrous ingredients.

Now add the shallots and garlic, either with the shallots first or at the same time. Since these are softer ingredients, they can go together, and they shouldn’t take as long to grind down.

The final ingredient will be the shrimp paste. You’re mostly just incorporating it into the paste at this point and making sure everything is as finely pounded as you can.