EGR (again) ???

Well I was having the check engine light a couple of months ago and took it in for service. They said it was the EGR valve and that it'd be $300 to replace. He pointed it out for me under the hood. I ordered one online for $90ish that never shipped (out of stock). I unscrewed it just to see what it looked like and couldn't get it off for fear of breaking it (seemed caught on something). Re-connected everything and my car ran fine until today.

Rough idle, but no stalling. I was like geez egr again! But the light never came on (30 min to work each way). So today I was determined to take it off and try and clean it as instructed in other posts. So I take it off and am surprised at what I saw. Is this actually the EGR?

2000 Sentra SE


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If you can't see the photos or links, the photos are all here ...

http://ishareshit.com/car/

So I used an old (clean) toothbrush and brushed off what looked like dirt. I took it for a drive around the block and it drove fine. When I ordered the egr valve it said I had to order a gasket too, which DID ship (though the egr didn't). So I have a new gasket, but there was no gasket in what I took off. I'm just afraid I'm working on the wrong thing or that I was trying to order the wrong thing.

Any suggestions? Tips?