© 2008 eleanor hoh

COOKING CLASS: Eleanor Hoh, above and left, leading one of her two-hour sessions on stir-frying. Below, a finished dish of tender-crisp greens, scallions, mushrooms and bell pepper flavored with tamari, sherry and bouillon.

but one that is simple to master. Spend two hours at one of Eleanor Hoh's stir-fry workshops and you'll be squirting, tossing and shaking like a pro. Even people who don't like to cook will be inspired by the simplicity of str-frying - and the fact that dinner can be on the table in less than half an hour.

Hoh grew up in Hong Kong enjoying her mother's Malaysian, Chinese and Portuguese cooking, from traditional Cantonese dishes to spicy curries and sambals. She missed mum's food sorely when she went to boarding school in England and faced boiled cabbage daily, so on visits home, she began watching her mother like a hawk as she cooked. With no written recipes to rely on, she had to rely on her senses, smelling, tasting and touching while jotting down notes.

Hoh returned to England and pursued a career in computer programming. In 1986, she moved to Key West to join her sister, and began teaching Chinese cooking from her home and made a how-to wok video.

That unique, rounded, slightly smoky fragrance of food stir-fried in a wok doesn't just happen. It is a precise process,

Now living in Miami, Hoh launches her classes with a round of introductions over wine and grilled pork dumplings. Students mingle and nibble, then gather around a stove.

Hoh holds up a wire caddy basket stocked with stir-fry essentials: a plastic squeeze bottle filled with canola oil and wrapped in paper towels to catch any drips, a stainless

steel shaker for cornstarch, a glass cruet for sherry and bottles of tamari (soy sauce made without wheat or sugar) and chilli garlic sauce.

Plastic colanders are full of sliced vegetables. Minced ginger and garlic are in small dishes, and a curved spatula (to fit the wok's sloped sides) is at the ready. All tools and ingredients should be handy, because once the wok is fired up the cooking goes fast. You also need a properly seasoned wok, made from cast iron. If seasoning a wok with multiple applications of hot oil to form a dark patina (the secret to good wok flavor) seems like too much work, Hoh sells woks she has primed herself.

A hot flame is crucial and Hoh suggests that cooks with electric stoves invest in a portable gas burner or face frustration. Then she goes over key points of the stir-fry process, explaining vegetables and meat or seafood are wokked separately so they don't boil in their collective juices, and are combined at the end with seasonings or a simple sauce. When the wok is smoking hot, Hoh squirts in oil, adding hefty pinches of garlic and ginger. Bok choy is dropped in,

wirled around and scraped up, and a domed lid clamped down so the thicker stems steam. When softened, the tender-crisp greens are removed to a platter, another squirt of oil added and scallions, mushrooms and strips of bell pepper are quickly tossed around, combined with the bok choy and a dash of tamari, sherry and some crumbled chicken bouillon. The result is a delicious dance of contrasting flavors and textures with the veggies soaking up wok flavor yet remaining crunchy.

Two more demos follow, with asparagus and shrimp, then beef and zucchini. Like a mantra, Hoh gently drills "heat wok, add oil, add ginger-garlic, add vegetable, remove vegetable, add meat and sear, deglaze with sauce, add vegetables back, toss with sauce."

It looks easy, and it is. Students' faces light up once they grasp the concept, then they dig into the dishes, served with steamed rice. Already they are talking about the endless possibilities and combinations they will stir-fry at home. Hoh's mission is accomplished