Well, you need to put the menu in the template.
In your code you have a html template for homepage, and in the view you define the menu, so when you compile it, don’t have idea what shows, the home html or the menu?
So, with that said, if you only need the home page view, you should put it on the same html or within inline template, like this:
<ion-nav [root]="rootPage" #content swipeBackEnabled="false"></ion-nav>
<!-- here start the actual home view-->
<ion-header>
<ion-navbar>
<ion-title>Ionic Blank</ion-title>
</ion-navbar>
</ion-header>
<ion-content padding>
<!-- you don't need a function to toggle the menu, just add the attribute-->
<button ion-button menuToggle>
<ion-icon name="menu"></ion-icon>
</button>
</ion-content>
That with just the home view, if you need more views, that I supposed you will need for the side menu to make actual sense, you need to separate menus in one component, and actual views in different components, then:
with Ionic RC0, in app.component.ts, make
rootPage = SideMenuPage;
In SideMenuPage ts:
rootPage = HomePage;
and to change view:
this.nav.setRoot(Page);
Be aware that if you disable swipe back, you need to add something (like a button) to activate the menu.
Also, you can create a project menu starter with cli
ionic start mySideMenu sidemenu --v2