Onions

There are red, purple, pink, golden and white onions, spring onions and shallots. Sometimes sweet, the red and pink onions snap and zing with the aroma of hot soil and form the basis of many dishes. The juice of all the large roundish onions is used to marinade meat and fish. First, the onions are grated, then crushed to a pulp with salt and left to weep; then the pulp is pushed through a sieve to extract the juice. Large white onions are stuffed with minced meat and rice, the long reeds of spring onions are chopped into salads and meze dishes, and shallots and other tiny onions are cooked whole in casseroles or skewered on kebabs.