With a significant portion of the population stuck inside during the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re challenging Star readers every week to try new things and show off their skills.

This week, we asked readers to send us their best recipes using ONLY ingredients they had at home. Then we sent them along to Toronto Star food writer Karon Liu, who provided some feedback.

Thanks to everyone who particpated in this week’s #StarChallenge. Check back on Monday for the next edition.

Here are the results:

Rice Cakes, by Joanne B of Toronto

Using white rice with assorted toppings like cheese, ground nuts and coconut flakes. This is a Philippine dessert and often served only during special occasions. Since I have a lot of time on my hands now, well I’m giving it a try.

Karon: I absolutely love it. The uniformity, all the different colours and textures. I mean, we are technically experiencing a special occasion right now (not a good one, but alas). Might as well make the most of the time we have, right? I love sweet rice desserts and it’s obvious how much time and care went into this.

Indian cookies, by Pallavi Nalavade

Here is my recipe of Indian Cookies (Nankatai) which I made with my daughter.

Ingredients:

1 cup + 2 tablespoons Maida (all purpose flour)

2 tablespoons Semolina (fine rava/sooji)

1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

A pinch of Salt

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter (or ghee), at room temperature

1/2 cup Powdered Sugar (or little less)

1/4 teaspoon Green Cardamom Powder

1 tablespoons finely chopped Pistachio, for garnishing

Directions: To powder the sugar, grind it in a small jar of a mixer grinder or a blender. Sieve (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) maida in a bowl, add 2 tablespoons semolina, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and a pinch of salt. Mix them with a spoon. Take 1/2 cup butter or ghee and powdered sugar in another bowl. Beat them using a wire whisk or hand mixer until smooth and soft. Add 1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder and beat again.

Add sieved dry ingredients.

Mix well and make a dough using hands. If the dough looks very greasy, add 1-2 tablespoons more flour and mix well (don’t add too much flour). Preheat oven to 350F for at least 10 minutes. Divide dough into 18 equal portions and make round shaped balls from it. Line a parchment pepper or an aluminum foil over baking tray. Take each ball and press a little between your palms to give it a patty like shape and place it over baking tray. If you want, you can make a criss-cross cut using a knife over top surface of each cookie. Top each one with a little bit of finely chopped pistachio and press gently with your finger. Keep enough space between each cookie because it will expand in size during baking. Place baking tray in preheated oven and bake at 350F for around 15-18 minutes or until cookie starts to turn light golden in color. After 15 minutes, check the cookies and keep an eye on it while further cooking (every oven has different settings and it may little longer or shorter time). Remove baking tray from oven and transfer cookies over cooling rack (or wire rack). Cookies will be soft at this time but they will turn crispy and hard (not rock hard) as they cooldown. Once at room temperature, they are ready to enjoy. Transfer them to an airtight container for storage and consume them within two weeks.

Serves: 18 cookies.

Karon: OK, not fair by including your adorable kid in there. C-H-E-A-T-I-N-G. Ah, who am I kidding? Please include as many babies, toddlers, dogs and cats in these photos as you can. Cardamom brings such a unique flavour to baked goods that really adds an incredible fragrance, and its flowery aroma is a great counterbalance to the nuttiness of pistachios. It’s why Indian desserts are so universally adored. I can smell the butteriness of these cookies from the screen!

Stuffed apples by Tabitha Pearson from Barrie

I usually use pecans or walnuts for this recipe, but as I am out, I used trail mix.

Ingredients:

2 apples

2 tbsp melted vegan butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp rolled oats

2 tbsp trail mix

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Dash salt

Preheat oven to 375F. Core two apples without breaking through bottom and place in shallow baking dish or baking sheet lined with parchment paper. (I used a paring knife to start and a spoon to scoop out but a melon baller would also work.) Mix ingredients together and divide evenly among two apples. Loosely cover in foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for 15 minutes. Serve with any caramelized bits and a drizzle of maple syrup. Let cool for five minutes before eating.

Karon: Props for being resourceful with the ingredients and finishing it with a bit of salt to even out the additional sweetness of the sugary components (brown sugar, apple, trail mix). It’s not the most Instagrammable dish but that’s true for all baked apples, and you make a baked apple because you wanna eat a baked apple and not so that you can get some Likes. But you know what Tabitha? You get a Like from me.

Korean style ginseng chicken soup, from Yue Zhuo

This is a meal featuring korean style ginseng chicken soup and homemade side dishes.

I think this is a perfect recipe for people that are busy with work while still trying to cook for themselves in this special time.

The chicken soup is extremely nutritious and takes minimal active effort in cooking, basically stuff the chicken and let it boil/simmer. The soup can also be saved for later use as stock for other recipes.

One of the side dishes is made from daikon radish and the other one with frozen seaweed. Both foods can be stored for a long time, which makes them perfect for the limited grocery runs people get nowadays.

Karon: I only recently learned what Samgyetang is (Korean ginseng and chicken soup) and it’s definitely something I could use right now. The bittersweet medicinal flavour of ginseng is hard to describe, but I think it’s something that a lot of kids grew up on and are really nostalgic over. Beautiful plating and use of contrasting colours. The acidity of the marinated daikon and the saltiness of the seaweed are excellent pairings with the soup.

Healthy sweet potato cupcakes, from Nicole and Michelle of @goodhealthprettylife

Sweet potato is one of the best nutritious foods out there! They’re rich in fibre and low in calories, meaning they won’t spike up blood sugar and insulin levels despite being sweet!

Cupcakes:

1/2 cup mashed orange sweet potato

2 cups oat flour

1/2 cup honey

2 tbsp avocado oil

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Stir wet ingredients in bowl. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Bake in lined muffin/cupcake tray for 20-25 min at 350 F.

Frosting:

1 cup mashed white sweet potato

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp melted coconut oil

2 tbsp almond milk

Blend everything in blender until smooth. Spread onto cooled cupcakes.

Karon: OK, I’m a traditionalist when it comes to baking and I make cakes with the regular all-purpose stuff and prefer frosting it with a Swiss meringue buttercream, but hey, flour is a bit harder to get now because everyone decided that they’re going to be sourdough people for the next foreseeable future. So, A+ for practicality cause flour is a hot item right now. Gluten-free and vegan baking is completely out of my wheelhouse, so I’ll take your word that this combination of flours, sweeteners and fats will work. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a white sweet potato before, so this frosting intrigues me and would it taste different if I had to use the more common orange variety?

Berry oatmeal streusel, from Crystal Nicholson

Thankfully, I always have the ingredients on hand to make my favourite berry oatmeal streusel muffins. So easy, delicious and healthy.

Karon: I dunno, Crystal, I love streusels because they’re full of delicious sugar and fat, not because they’re healthy. But I guess if you turn it into smaller muffin portions it’ll keep me from eating the whole pan. Bonus points for using a background that compliments the blueberries in the muffins. I’m not gonna lie, the composition and perfect colours of this photo makes me wonder if this was shot by a pro.

Ravioli, from Dalia and Isaac

For today's #StarChallange my kids Dalia, 8 and Isaac, 11 made black bean, cheddar cheese and egg ravioli from scratch.

They did the whole project on their own - from conception through to execution.

They made the ravioli from flour, curry powder and egg whites. They were delicious! Here's a video with them explaining the dish:

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Karon: I mean, what am I gonna do? Crush the culinary dreams of an eight and 11-year old? OK, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done it BUT I give major respect to Dalia and Isaac for their ambition and creativity. A curry-flavoured ravioli dough?! I would seriously love to see that Indian-Italian mash-up at a restaurant when this is all over. Would I have used a paneer instead of cheddar or chickpeas instead of black beans? Maybe! But hey, you’re busting out your Chopped skills and using whatever you have at home and that’s the spirit of this whole #StarChallenge! Curry-flavoured pasta dough! Genius!

Cake from Maria Eli

This the cake I made with ingredients that I had at home.

8 eggs (beated for 5 minutes - high speed).

Then slowly added 1 cup of granulated sugar medium speed, then a couple minutes beating it.

Added the flour littlle by little with a spoon slowly, shaked and whisked with a fouet.

Oven 356F about 40/45 minutes.

I used on top and in the middle: strawberries, leftover blueberries syrup (from a jam that I made sometime ago) and leftover portion of vanilla whipped frosting.

It is yummy. Made it last night. Thank you.

Karon: The weather outside sucks (not that I would know, I haven’t gone out in three days) but this cake reminds me of summer with the mound of strawberries and (homemade!) blueberry syrup just dripping down and getting soaked up by the cake. I’m not a strong baker but it looks like it was able to rise without using baking soda or powder according to your recipe? Anyway, this looks like something I would see at an afternoon tea party at a fancy garden. Thanks for making something that reminds me of things to look forward to!

Stir-fry, from Andrea Bennett

Description: My (small—two adults, one toddler, one cat) family has been self-isolating after recent domestic travel. So the attached meal is fully from our pantry, plus longer-lasting vegetables and proteins we'd stocked up on.

It's a rice noodles with stir-fried tempeh, cabbage, and carrots, tossed in a peanut-lime-ginger sauce, and topped with sesame seeds and scallions. I'd chopped and frozen the scallions a while ago, when I had extra, and was happy to find them in the freezer.

The sauce consists of natural peanut butter, water, soy sauce, grated ginger, sesame oil, and lime juice (from a squeeze bottle).

I fried the tempeh a bit to get it a little crispy before pulling it out of the pan, and then cooking the carrot and cabbage. Noodles get cooked separately. At the end, everything comes back together and gets tossed in the sauce.

Not the world's fanciest meal, but relatively tasty!

Also: I took these pics not quite with the intention of sharing them with the Star (I didn't think about my plating, either), so... they're not very good, sorry!

Karon: You know what, Andrea? This plating is great despite what you wrote in the submission. It has colour (I KNOW you thought about adding the green onions at the end rather than let them get lost in the mix); differing textures with the tempeh, cabbage and sesame seeds; and it’s served on a plate that reminds me of a retro chop suey house. You’re self-isolating after a trip with a toddler and a cat AND have a stocked pantry with fresh veggies. That is a feat.

Pasta Al Forno, from Crystal Nicholson of Port Hope

My fiance is Italian, so there is never a shortage of pasta at our place! This is his favourite dish - Pasta Al Forno - extra crispy under the broiler!

Karon: Crystal, I’m sure your fiance is a great man, but in times like these I’m going to assume that you’re marrying him for carbs since pasta is now as good as gold. Yay for not being afraid to get the top extra crispy and blackened, too many home cooks are still afraid of burning their food but this provides an excellent caramelization, colour and crispiness. I call this a Karon-sized portion, which is *chef’s kiss*.

French onion soup, from Lucia Cascioli

I had plenty of onions in the kitchen, so I made some French onion soup in the slow cooker.

Karon: Lucia, you are smart by not standing over the stove and waiting a bajillion hours for a bunch of onions to caramelize. I mean, we all have time but not THAT much time. Also, by putting everything in a slow cooker and letting the aroma of onions slowly fill the house would be my way of making sure that I haven’t lost my sense of smell and possibly contracted the virus. I also like that you went with not one, but TWO, slices of toasted bread topped with cheese. This is how all French onion soups should be served.

Veggie Stew from Margaret Ngai

My #StarChallenge: Pantry+Leftover Edition - Indian spiced veggie stew (black beans, potatoes, carrots, oyster mushrooms) on home made flour tortilla, topped with yogurt & Bahamian hot sauce.

Karon: It’s Indian, it’s Latin, it’s Bahamian, whatever it is, I can taste how this would all come together. I like that you’re making your own tortillas while everyone else is sharing pictures of sourdough. It’s a silent flex to show that you’re doing your own thing, and I will probably steal your idea of adding oyster mushrooms to stews. Sorry, this is what happens when you flex.

Oatmeal pancakes, from Amy McCarthy

I made these pancakes today from ingredients I always have around, and maybe other folks do, too! I served them with bacon, sliced apples and black coffee (I am SO not leaving my house to purchase cream right now!). I'm sure they can be made with vegan ingredients and any type of unflavored oils instead of butter. If white sugar is in short supply, one can try brown sugar or honey.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 packages plain, instant oatmeal (I don't think subs will work here)

1/4 cup white sugar

2 tbsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon (or more, to taste)

1/4 tsp nutmeg

4 tbsp salted butter, melted (increase salt if using unsalted butter)

2 tbsp canola oil

1 egg

1/2 cup milk, plus extra as needed to form batter

1 tsp white vinegar

1/2 tsp vanilla

canola oil for frying

Directions:

Melt butter and set aside. Mix egg, milk, vinegar, canola oil and vanilla and set aside. Mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl

Form well in centre of dry ingredients. Pour in egg mixture, then melted butter and mix lightly just until blended, adding additional milk until a thick batter forms (should be the consistency of prepared oatmeal).

Add canola oil to the frying pan and heat over medium heat (high temperature will burn the pancakes)

Drop the pancakes into the pan and fry on each side until golden. I flatten them with the spatula a little after I have flipped them.

Enjoy!

Karon: I think it’s because I’ve been cooking with canned tuna and using cans of evaporated milk to make cream sauces for the past two weeks, but adding instant oatmeal to pancake batter sounds like something a chef at a hipster brunch place would come up with. I can’t believe I haven’t thought of it. This is a nice, non-overnight soaking, way of using up oats, and a good way of adding extra heft and texture to pancakes, not to mention extra fibre to use all those rolls of toilet paper we’ve been hoarding.

Vanilla cake from Kezia Houghton, age 15

I made a vanilla cake with chocolate icing and rainbow adornments. I wanted to make something to lift the spirits of my family. I chose the bright cheerful colors to brighten everyone's day. I love making cakes and it was an easy way to bless everyone in my family- all 9 of us!!!!

Karon: Kezia, you’re self-isolating with NINE people?! That is either fantastic or a nightmare, but since you took the effort of making this gorgeous cake for them I’m going to assume that you love all of them. Excellent use of colour not just with the sprinkles, but using MULTIPLE icing colours in the piping tip to achieve that rainbow swirl. I literally learned how to do that two years ago so you are 17 years ahead of me.